School Children Nearly Run Down Getting Off School Buses, Neighborhood Pets Killed by Speeding Cars and Numerous Cars and Houses Hit by Dangerous Traffic Diverted Through Small Neighborhood
Houston, Texas — More than 3,300 cars and trucks a day barrel down Wickchester, a once-quiet, tree-shaded street in the small neighborhood of Westwick HOA. Now, residents here have urgent safety concerns: their children getting off school buses have nearly been hit by speeding drivers, family pets have been killed and homeowner’s cars and houses have been struck by too many drivers, moving too fast, cutting through their neighborhood.
This neighborhood says they have been begging for help from city hall to take action before a resident or a child is killed. They say it’s not a matter of if, but rather when the near-misses they’ve experienced so far will become fatalities.
“Earlier this month, as my son got off his school bus at the corner of Wickchester and Kirkwood, a van barreled around the corner and screeched to a stop, less than 2 feet before hitting him,” said Jane Williams, a mom and Westwick resident for 5 years. “Every day, the children of our neighborhood board and exit school buses and cross at that same street corner where my son was almost hit. It’s a life-threatening situation.”
Neighbors are rallying today to protest the dangerous traffic and safety concerns in their neighborhood.
“My vehicles have been hit at least five times. I was exiting my van and a car almost sideswiped me. I was pinned spread eagle against my van. If I hadn’t seen it coming, I would have been killed,” said Bill McCurdy, a Westwick resident. “Vandals have also destroyed every mailbox on the street, and my son witnessed a car swerving from Kirkwood onto Wickchester destroy a neighbor’s yard; run into the flowerbed and almost into the house.”
“In late September, my daughter parked on the curb in front of our house and walked in the door. A few minutes later, we heard a loud crash. Her car was broadsided, from front to back. Five minutes earlier, and she would have been hit. I lost $5,400 from that hit and run incident and I almost lost my daughter too,” said John Dineen, a Westwick resident.
Westwick residents say the traffic nightmare started after the reconstruction of I-10 when Old Katy Road was modified from a 2-way to 1-way feeder road. With this change, feeder road traffic diverted to Wickchester, a residential street unequipped to host the volume, speed, or pollution of an interstate’s feeder road traffic. Over the last few years, instead of the 400 cars-per-day it should normally experience, anywhere from 3, 300 to 6,000 vehicles per day speed down Wickchester, leaving downed signs, damaged vehicles, and dead pets in their wake. At least three hours a weekday, Wickchester is impassable because of dangerous traffic conditions. The situation has destroyed the security of the residents and their quality of life, not to mention their property values.
Westwick residents want the city to consider an inexpensive, alternative plan developed by the neighborhood and some of the western businesses for addressing the problem. Residents say there has been no consideration of this alternate proposal.