First reported 5/21/2010 4:34 p.m.
On Friday, a 4-year-old Oak Park boy crossing the street to Horace Mann Elementary School was hit by a car. Later that day, the village installed a stop sign at the intersection of Division and Woodbine.
The boy, who is the younger brother of a Mann student, was hit while crossing Division. Alert, conscious and crying after the accident, he was taken by ambulance to Loyola University Hospital in Maywood as a precaution. He was later released.
It’s a busy intersection, and one that residents have been decrying as dangerous for some time.
“We see a lot of close calls here,” said Chris Neville, who lives next to the intersection. “It’s been a disaster waiting to happen.”
A group of residents has petitioned the village to make changes to the intersection. And at a meeting last month, the village’s transportation commission decided to recommend adding flashing yield lights to the intersection and lowering speed limits on Division.
The commission’s recommendations were expected to be reviewed at the village board’s next meeting, which is on June 7.
In April, the village’s transit engineers specifically recommended against a stop sign like the one installed at about 1 p.m. today – an order from Chief of Police Rick Tanksley.
“We know that they have a plan in place. This is just a temporary measure until the board meeting,” Deputy Chief Anthony Ambrose told Wednesday Journal this afternoon.
“The police chief used his authority to promote a safe area to have stop signs put up,” village spokesman David Powers said.
Village Engineer Jim Budrick said his department recommended against a stop sign because there was one the next block over, at Kenilworth. However, Budrick said, the decision is out of his hands at this point.
“At this point in time, the discussion will probably take place at the board table,” Budrick said.
While police officials declined to share information about the boy, they said the man who hit him was 40-year-old Santo Jones, of the 1500 block of N. Lotus in Chicago.
Jones was ticketed for failing to yield to a pedestrian and for driving without insurance, according to Ambrose. Jones was released Friday morning.
