Town, School Team Up to Keep Kids Safe on Local Streets

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — Southampton Town officials gathered with Hampton Bays Elementary School PTA volunteers Friday to launch a program aimed at keeping kids safe.

Two speed zone displays were installed on Ponquogue Avenue in Hampton Bays as part of a "School's Open" safety campaign Friday. The units are located in front of Hampton Bays Elementary School.

The units will emphasize to drivers they are in a school zone and will display motorists' speeds, police siad.

According to Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, the town partnered with the Hampton Bays Elementary School PTA; total cost of the project was $7,028 and was split evenly between the town and the PTA.

“We want to encourage drivers to reduce their speed when entering a school zone,” Schneiderman said. “If we can slow down traffic for public safety, these signs are well worth the investment.”

According to recent statistics from PEDSAFE, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, a pedestrian hit by a moving vehicle at 40 mph has only a 15 percent chance of survival. Reducing speed to 20 mph gives a 95 percent chance of surviving the accident, statistics indicated.

The school campus along Ponquogue Avenue includes the elementary school and the middle school and serves more than 1,300 children, officials said Friday.

Hampton Bays Schools Superintendent Lars Clemensen said, “Student safety is our number one priority as a school district. Without it, the business of teaching and learning cannot happen, and so we are grateful to the Elementary PTA, Supervisor Schneiderman and the town board for identifying a problem and partnering to deliver a solution quickly and collaboratively.”

The units are meant for speed display units only and are not programmed to record license plate information or issue tickets.

Southampton Town Police Chief Robert Pearce also spoke at the event. “Keeping the safety of our children in the community is paramount to the police Ddpartment. These electronic signs are an added tool to make drivers aware of their speed within the school zones," he said.

The installation of the speed zone units are part of an overall safety program recently implemented in Hampton Bays that includes building sidewalks on Argonne Road, Wakeman Road, and Ponquogue Avenue to give students and their families safe passage to and from school, officials said.