FORT MYERS, Fla. — Some parents say they are concerned for their children who are walking across the street in some parts of Fort Myers, because people speed through lights and crosswalks.
Councilman Liston Bochette says the time is now to brainstorm crosswalk safety by adding cameras near school zones.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price' explain the proposal:
Fox 4's Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price visited some school zones and found a concerned parent, Erik Bartolomeu. He doesn't let his daughter walk because of many safety reasons, and the crosswalk traffic is one of them.
"I just saw a kid that decided to cross while people going over the speed bumps, either car is going to hit another car or they're going to hit a kid," says Bartolomeu.
Bartolomeu is a parent to a high school senior in Fort Myers.
He picks his daughter up almost every day and says he sees how dangerous it is for children to walk home from school.
"When something happens, obviously somebody ends up saying that the price of a child or the price of somebody, is you know, priceless," says Bartolomeu.
He says it's time to establish safety protocols that will deter people from driving recklessly, and Councilman Liston Bouchette agrees.
The councilman says the city should talk about installing speed cameras before a tragedy happens.
"They're like, a speed trap, a legal speed trap," says Bochette.
He says that as a pilot program, he would like cameras placed near high-traffic areas near an elementary school.
"The most vulnerable are school crossings and those kids you can't stop 90-ton dump truck moving at 40 miles an hour if they don't respect the time zone" says Bochette. "So the camera system, whether it's good or bad, we need to look into it, investigate it, and see if it's applicable to what we need."
For example, he says he's seen people blow through warning lights on McGregor Boulevard.
"Just disrespecting it, and that's the real danger," says Bochette. "So we'll get a grip on this. We'll assess, and maybe it shows just at the morning crossing or the afternoon crossing.
Price asked Bochette when City Council will talk about it.
"This coming Monday, April 7th, we'll put it on the agenda just to move it to a workshop and have an analysis program of what the benefits are. What are the detriments? Innovations coming. Technology is moving. AI is coming at us full speed," he replied. "We want to be a leading city, not a following city, but the main thing is to protect our citizens' rights."
