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Parent tries to lower speed limit
Cindy Smith's daughter totaled her car as she was pulling out of Westfield High School on the last day of school.The 16-year-old was making a left onto Stonecroft Boulevard on June 13 when a car slammed into her.
“She never even saw him,” Smith said.
Now the Chantilly resident says the 40 mph speed limit in front of the school and Cub Run RECenter should be lowered.
Smith has asked the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Fairfax County to reduce the speed limit in front of the school to 25 mph.
“I've never heard of such a fast speed limit in front of the school,” Smith said.
Douglas O'Neill, coordinator for safety and environmental health for the school system, said no one has complained about the speed limit in front of the school before and school staff are not too concerned about traffic safety there.
“That is the way the road was designed in conjunction with VDOT when the school opened,” O'Neill said, adding that safety on the road was adequately reviewed at the time.
VDOT traffic engineers have been contacted and will examine the request, said spokeswoman Joan Morris.
Westfield High School, one of the largest high schools in Fairfax County, opened in 2000 between a growing office park and a cluster of automobile dealerships. The county opened a recreation center next door to the school a few years later.
The driveways from the school and recreation center have sight distances that “well exceed the distance requirements,” O'Neill said.
“This was not the first accident in front of the school, but let's lower the speed limit and make it the last,” Smith wrote in the e-mail she sent VDOT and school staff.
According to Master Police Officer Tom Harrington, there were four accidents in front of the school since March 24. Two accidents resulted in property damage and two resulted in injuries, Harrington said.
“We have tried to educate our teens on the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, but we are not protecting these inexperienced drivers from crossing a four-lane road as they try to leave school,” said Smith, a resident of the area for nearly 20 years.
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