CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The mother of a Tuloso-Midway Intermediate School fourth grader, says it's only a matter of time until a child gets hit by a car on the way to school or while coming home from school.
“The area is growing, and there’s more houses coming up," Martha Juarez said. "So there’s more traffic flow. So the odds (of an accident) are greater."
Juarez believes more stop signs are needed near the school and stop lights along Rand Morgan Road a few blocks away.
She also doesn't think that the 15 mile-per-hour speed limit in the school zones near her son's school are enforced well enough.
"I have seen a student almost get hit once," she said. “It’s pretty dangerous.”
Concerns like those have reached the desk of Billy Lerma, the Corpus Christi City Council Member for Precinct One, where Tuloso-Midway schools are located.
“We’ve always had issues with proper signage -- safety for kids to cross streets -- that kind of situation," Lerma said.
Lerma says those issues are present near a number of schools in Corpus Christi, not just those in the Tuloso-Midway Independent School District.
It's why he and other city leaders are trying to form a safety improvement program that would begin at TMISD schools next month.
The program would include installing traffic signals, stop signs, and crosswalks near schools among other safety improvements.
It's unclear how much the program would cost, but it's possible that a combination of city and school district funds could pay for it.
"Wherever the money comes from, students must be kept safe at all times," he said.
Juarez hopes the safety program gets the green light, and she has some suggestions on just what kind of improvements need to be made.
“I think that if they put in some speed bumps, or if they put in a light that would help a lot," she said.
