DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160557

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B11  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   57 lines

SAFETY SIGNS COME TOO LATE TO PREVENT ANOTHER ACCIDENT

The city installed speed limit signs last Friday on the Bowling Green street where three children have been hit by cars this year, but the absence of posted limits and stop signs on other roads in the public housing neighborhood may have contributed to an accident the previous day.

Traffic officials erected two 25-mph speed limit signs and two ``Children Playing'' signs along Godfrey Avenue after residents complained for months about conditions on the streets.

But traffic signs and speed bumps are needed on side streets as well, residents say. As proof, they point to a two-car collision last Thursday at the intersection of Mapleton Avenue and Parish Road.

There are no stop or yield signs at the four-way intersection, and no speed limit signs along either road.

According to police spokesman Larry Hill, the two-car, late afternoon collision occurred when the driver of one vehicle failed to yield to another. The first car broadsided the second, he said.

He did not know the extent of injuries, but Gladys Skinner, a passenger in one of the vehicles, said her leg was pinned in the car and she had to be cut out and taken to the hospital.

``The intersection was the problem,'' said Hill Wednesday. ``The accident was due to no `Stop' signs.''

The first driver was charged with failure to yield, Hill said. At an uncontrolled intersection, the driver on the right must yield, he added.

Grover Edmunds, traffic investigator for the city, said Wednesday that he had assessed conditions only on Godfrey and recommended signs for it alone.

The citizens' petition asks that measures be taken on three other streets, including Mapleton.

Bowling Green residents say drivers routinely travel too fast along the narrow, car-lined side streets of the neighborhood as well as up and down Godfrey, the curving, half-mile avenue that connects Virginia Beach Boulevard and Princess Anne Road.

The new signs on Godfrey went up four months after residents begged the city's help in keeping their children safe.

In June, 231 residents petitioned the city. They cited the cases of the two children injured in January and June.

Residents say the city dragged its feet and in August, 6-year-old Cheree Coley was hit by a car and suffered a broken leg and concussion.

Traffic officials have said that stop signs must be approved by the City Council, a process that will take four to six weeks.

On Sunday, the city put in monitors to determine whether speed bumps are called for on Godfrey. Residents also want cross walks at neighborhood intersections. ILLUSTRATION: Signs alerting motorists to children at play have been

erected on Godfrey Avenue in response to residents' complaints of

speeding through the Bowling Green neighborhood. Additional signs

and speed bumps are needed on side streets, the residents say.

MOTOYA NAKAMURA

The Virginian-Pilot

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