Fort Mill mayor expresses concern about the safety of school crossing guards

FORT MILL, S.C. (WBTV) - Two school crossing guards struck by vehicles in just over six months.

Back in March, Stanley Brucker died after he was hit by a car in front of Fort Mill Elementary School.

Last week a crossing guard was hit on Fort Mill Parkway, close to Catawba Ridge High School.

Fort Mill mayor, Guynn Savage said she is uncomfortable with these events that involve people trying to protect the safety of pedestrians and cars entering the school.

“We’re working hard with the department of transportation to see what alternatives are there. Are there new technologies that might apply to an entrance and exit on a busy bypass. We certainly don’t have engineering on staff here, so we must rely upon those agencies to find those things for us and to help us implement them,” shared Savage.

WBTV received a statement from Hannah Robinson with SCDOT saying in part:

“Since April, SCDOT has updated the school flashers at Fort Mill Elementary School and Fort Mill Middle School on SC 460. The update included advance school speed reduction signs and the clearing of vegetation within the right of way. The school speed zone remained 30 mph. The roadway is posted at 45 mph when school is not in session.

At Riverview Elementary School located on Spratt Street, we are planning to install school flashers with a posted speed limit of 30 mph. The plans have been prepared and the flashers are scheduled to be installed within the next 30 days.

All other school zone speed limits were reviewed and no changes are recommended at this time.

SCDOT has worked closely with the Fort Hill School District and will continue to do so."

Mayor Savage shared that she hopes the town along with the school district and SCDOT can work together to come up with ways to better prevent these incidents from happening in the future.

“The department of transportation views the bypass in particular as something that they put into place that will help people avoid coming through town when they can go around it, lowering the congestion on city streets. So it’s difficult for them to make decisions that might further congest that bypass. So we do have a conundrum but safety has to come first, and everyone I talked to has put that into words,” said Savage.