Crashes Keep Happening On This 'Hot Mess' Brooklyn Street

EAST WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Cars zip down a stretch of Manhattan Avenue without stop signs and frequently crash near a local public school. And locals are terrified the city won’t provide crucial fixes until it’s too late.

“It’s extra dangerous, it’s a hot mess,” said Manhattan Avenue resident Sarah Conroy. “There are kids going to school there every day.”

The lack of stop signs at the five intersections between Meeker and Metropolitan avenues means that cars speed through the residential area where resident like Conroy have grown used to hearing “the squeal of tires and then a bang,” she said.

That's why the a 39-year-old stylist has launched an online petition to install stop signs that she hopes will better protect the neighborhood's dog owners and the P.S. 132 kids who must regularly dash across the street between speeding cars, Conroy said.

Conroy has seen at least 20 crashes — some of which ended with cars colliding into her neighbors' homes —since she first moved into her home near Manhattan and Skillman avenues about eight years ago, she said.

“It’s terrifying to cross the streets at all times,” Conroy said. “It’s a really unsafe area.”

Three people have been injured in the five crashes that have already occurred on the six-block stretch this year, city records show.

The concerned citizen brought the issue to Community Board 1 but was told it might take a more serious accident to garner the attention of the Department of Transportation, said Conroy.

“I was like, ‘Why would we await for someone to actually be killed before we do something?’” Conroy said, “They kind of responded, ‘their hands were tied.’”

Community Board 1 chairperson Dealice Fueller asked the DOT to study Manhattan Avenue, which she noted is well-populated by children who attend after-school programs at the Jackson Street community center, in December, city records show.

In the letter, which Patch obtained from the Community Board, Fueller implied she had made this request before.

"As we have related in the past, this stretch has no additional signals and the roadway becomes a speedway," Fueller wrote. "Residents report that a minimum of at least five additional crashes have happened within the last three months.

"They need to have a safer crossing."

DOT officials did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Conroy's response was to rally the group of residents she routinely meets on her street corner when cars crash and who all agree the situation is “ridiculous,” she said.

Her online petition garnered almost 100 signatures as of Thursday and dozens of messages of support from local parents who fear for their children.

“My daughters go to this school and traffic is crazy in this area-lots of trucks, speeding, and cars cutting corners,” wrote Local P. “Need a stop sign on Manhattan and Conselyea.”

“Don’t want to fear for my life crossing manhattan in car, on bike or by feet,” wrote Ariel W.

“I walk my son to PS132 daily,” wrote Christina R. “We take Manhattan Ave and have witnessed many unsafe moments. Our community of students and their safety should be the priority!”

Conroy’s next steps will be to work with the P.S.132 PTA to gather more support, then she’ll take her signatures and testimonials to a Community Board 1 meeting to ask again for a study, she said.

Conroy hopes to get some stop signs on Manhattan Avenue by the time school starts in September.

Photos courtesy of Sarah Conroy