Showers in the morning, then cloudy in the afternoon. Morning high of 47F with temps falling to near 35. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Decreasing cloudiness and windy. Low 27F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
A member of a crash reconstruction team walks past a backpack and other debris in the middle of Route 7 in Niskayuna near Bellevue Woman’s Center on Feb. 25.
A member of a crash reconstruction team walks past a backpack and other debris in the middle of Route 7 in Niskayuna near Bellevue Woman’s Center on Feb. 25.
Long after the police and ambulances and fire trucks have pulled away, after the yellow tape and the traffic cones are gathered up, after the rubberneckers drive on and after the skid marks on the pavement fade, all that’s left behind are the shattered lives of those affected by the tragedy.
For the drivers that come along after the crash, it soon goes back to being just a road. A means to an end. A few unremarkable seconds of a busy work day.
Everything goes back to normal. Until the next one. Then it all comes back again.
And it will keep coming back — the agony, the loss —until public officials and citizens rise up and take effective action to stop the next one from happening.
That time has come for Route 7 in Niskayuna, which has a long and deadly history of fatal accidents.
Yet the same issues with the road persist, even as people continue to die there.
Last Tuesday around 2:45 p.m, 59-year-old Angela Fisher-Reid of Schenectady was crossing Route 7 near Hickory Road in front of the Bellevue Woman’s Center when she was struck by a vehicle. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Almost exactly a year earlier, in nearly the same spot, 14-year-old A.J. Smullen - the son of local Assemblyman Robert Smullen - was struck and severely injured. He died two weeks later from his injuries.
Public officials are not unaware of the problems there, nor have they been indifferent or complacent in seeking solutions.
The town set up a special safety division and stepped up speed enforcement along the roadway, issuing more than 2,500 tickets on Route 7 last year alone.
They’ve purchased an electric sign to alert motorists and enlisted other police agencies to help with enforcement. They’ve suggested moving a bus stop to discourage crossings.
Last year, the town board — with the help of federal, state and local money —authorized a study to examine calming measures for the roadway.
Officials are investigating potential solutions such as traffic-calming measures and making the road more accommodating to different forms of transportation such as cyclists and pedestrians.
Yet the road is still dangerous, and people continue to lose their lives there.
We understand the need for careful study to come up with solutions.
But this isn’t some complex superhighway in the middle of a congested city. So it’s not like transportation officials have never dealt with the kind of issues in other places that this road poses in terms of excessive speed, visibility and pedestrian traffic.
It shouldn’t take years of study to come up with some kind of solution or solutions that could be initiated fairly quickly and inexpensively to at least address some of the roadway’s issues.
Lower speed limits, flashing lights at crosswalks, roadside traffic signals, traffic islands, curb extenders and speed humps are all solutions that have been used to reduce traffic accidents on dangerous roads in other places.
Does any community in the region have anything they can loan the town, like extra caution signs or physical barriers? Is there anyone who can offer advice on how they’ve solved a similar problem in their community?
Can any of the options that have been used successfully in other areas be applied here to immediately reduce the dangers that pedestrians and motorists face, rather than waiting months or years for the results of a final study, only to then have to wait more time for the study’s recommendations to be implemented?
Do the people studying the solutions for Route 7 now have any preliminary conclusions they can draw that could be implemented now instead of waiting for the final report?
There comes a time when everything that’s being done isn’t enough. This is one of those times.
On Monday, Assemblyman Smullen will be at Belleview Woman’s Center to unveil a memorial sign dedicated to his late son.
He hopes legislation he’s proposing to establish a traffic safety memorial sign program, the “Alexander John Smullen Traffic Safety Memorial Law,” will help memorialize other victims and remind drivers to exercise caution other in areas where people have been killed.
Maybe a memorial sign will help reduce injuries and accidents on Route 7.
