LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Crosswalks along Charleston Boulevard near 28th Street have been refreshed, months after a 10-year-old boy was hit and killed while trying to cross the road along the same corridor.
READ MORE: 10-year-old boy’s death prompts pleas for added crosswalk, safety
The work took place last Thursday. The area has been a focus of safety concerns, particularly after the death of 10-year-old Simeon Young.
Phillip Higgins, manager at the Vegas Market near Charleston and 28th, started a petition and submitted five pages of signatures to NDOT.
“I’ve been around here so long, I just don’t want to see another family have to be hurt or another person have to go through another funeral for something that maybe could have been prevented,” Higgins said.
Improvements appear quickly
Higgins said he saw improvements shortly after submitting the petition.
“The painting was really, really fast,” he said. “After I did the petition, the next day, they kind of came out and painted this stuff.”
Bike lanes also appeared in the area. But Higgins said more needs to be done, especially with a new subsidized apartment complex moving in nearby this summer.
“Just the crosswalks with the flashing lights and the repaint of the crosswalks, just to make the neighborhood more safer,” he said.
Higgins said he has witnessed more crashes since Young’s death.
“There’s been two other accidents that I’ve witnessed since I’ve been here, since the little boy incident, and then the lady that got hit a couple weeks after,” he said.
Residents report close calls
Dee Harvey said she has seen close calls too.
“I’ve almost gotten hit too,” Harvey said. “So many people, this last week, a guy almost got hit. They had to put on the brakes and screech the car because he was taking his bike through the crosswalk, but the people did not see it.”
Harvey said with the nearest crosswalk more than five blocks away from the area where Simeon Young was hit, people are often left taking risks.
“A lot of Nevadans don’t know this, but it is 1.2 miles to the nearest grocery store from this location,” she said. “And if you’re on foot and you’ve got kids and you’ve got to carry groceries, I mean, that’s pretty hard.”
NDOT officials said maintenance crews refreshed the crosswalks using thermoplastic, a durable pavement marking applied with heat. The material is supposed to improve visibility and last longer than traditional paint.
Residents said they have been trying to reach officials to see what is being done and whether there is a long-term plan in place, but said they still have not heard back from the city of Las Vegas, Clark County or local commissioners.
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