Safety key as kids walk to school

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By Deirdre Cox Baker | Wednesday, October 8, 2008 11:04 AM CDT | () comments

Garfield School kids stroll through their school nieghborhood during the annual "Walk This Way" awareness event this morning. (Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

Joan Dwyer appreciates the stoplight located outside the front door of Garfield Elementary School in Davenport.

Dwyer walks her 7-year-old daughter, Maeve, to school every day and said the traffic lights make a safe difference in negotiating busy East 29th Street, which runs past the school located in the middle of the established Davenport neighborhood.

Most drivers are pretty good about safety, Dwyer said, but she will continue to walk Maeve to school for the future. The Dwyers’ daily habit was on display Wednesday during the “Walk this Way” pedestrian safety event. It was staged by the Quad-City Safe Kids Coalition, sponsor FedEx and health and safety officials from both Scott and Rock Island counties.

Maeve Dwyer and hundreds of Garfield children formed a parade route around the school early Wednesday, carrying signs saying “Stop for Pedestrians,” and “Crosswalks Help Save Lives.” The younger children chanted “Be safe! Be safe!” while the older ones had a rap-style chant, “Keep kids alive! Drive 25!”

Keene Hart, of the Safe Kids coalition, taught the children to look “left-right-left” before they cross the street and asked parents to watch for obstacles that obscure the view of city walkways.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, pedestrian accidents are the third-leading cause of death for children ages 4 to 11 years old.

Isaiah Pascoe, 7, son of Joe and Angela Pascoe, Davenport, is a first-grader who walks about one-third of a mile to school with his parents. The Pascoes and baby daughter Sophia attended the safety ceremony.

“We walk, even when it rains,” Joe Pascoe said. The native New Zealander said the family chose to live in the neighborhood because of its access to Garfield and have done the walking routine for two years.

The Davenport School District celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, Garfield Principal Deb Miller said. The school was located in the neighborhood filled with neat, single-family homes and narrow city streets, when traffic was not the issue it can be today. But walking makes even more sense in these economic times, she said.

The Davenport event was one of hundreds held across the nation this week to promote pedestrian safety.

Deirdre Cox Baker can be contacted at (563) 383-2492 or dbaker@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.

Event this afternoon

At 4 p.m. today, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, will visit a Safe Routes to Schools grant project in Davenport with U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The event will be at Jackson Elementary School, 1307 Wisconsin Ave., Davenport. The Safe Routes to Schools Program promotes projects to make biking and walking to school safer for children.