KIRYAS JOEL, NY — Several thousand Kiryas Joel schoolchildren now wear strips of silver reflective fabric on their coats to make them more visible and reduce the number of kids hit by cars in the village.
The village's Public Safety Department and school district began distributing the strips two weeks ago. They insisted that children have them sewn onto their coats by the start of this week or be barred from getting onto a school bus, according to Public Safety Director Moses Witriol.
Kiryas Joel Program Helps Drivers See Children
KIRYAS JOEL, NY — Several thousand Kiryas Joel schoolchildren now wear strips of silver reflective fabric on their coats to make them more visible and reduce the number of kids hit by cars in the village.
The village’s Public Safety Department and school district began distributing the strips two weeks ago. They insisted that children have them sewn onto their coats by the start of this week or be barred from getting onto a school bus, according to Public Safety Director Moses Witriol.
“I would say roughly 85 percent of the kids have them already,” he said Friday.
Roughly 8,000 kids board buses each day in the densely populated Hasidic community, where schooling begins at age 3.
Dark clothing, evening classes for older kids and curtailed daylight during winter make it more difficult for drivers to see children crossing the street. Eight Kiryas Joel children were hit by cars in 2008, Witriol said.
“In most cases, the drivers say they didn’t see somebody because of the dark clothing,” he said.
State police records show 12 accidents involving children last year, one of which took place just outside the village in the Town of Monroe and three of which involved toddlers. Most resulted in little more than scrapes.
Kiryas Joel School Superintendent Joel Petlin credits one of his bus drivers, Yizchok Kornbluh, with suggesting the reflective strips to increase children’s visibility, an idea that evolved into a program called “Be Safe — Be Seen.”
Troopers from the nearby Monroe barracks visited the schools to offer safety lessons.
The silver fabric comes in 100-yard rolls, which have been cut into strips and distributed at the schools.
The school district and Head Start funding will cover the cost, less than $7,000, Petlin said.
Pedro
Just my oppinion…
It might be better to give a course to parents not to allow their children to wonder absent mindedly (without supervision) into the streets.
But i guess if the children still are allowed to run into the streets, but are attached to a line of reflected material, all will be good!
…Then again, it’s just MY oppinion
Chani
I just got off the fone with a friend who lives there. She said all the parents are for it. They are really being strict. They are much stricter with the boys that are coming home after dark.
Good Job KJ!
Not in the dark
guess all the advertising about being the poorest neighborhood helped the funding towards this!
Crossing the street
I agree with Pedro – the kids should not be allowed out alone before they are able to cross the street properly (above age ten) where they can understand space and time. I also don’t like the idea where they are singled out to wear an item on their clothes and it’s forced – it should be something optional and helpful but not forceful!
Milhouse
Men should have this on their black coats/kapotes too.
moishie
Great, there is nothing wrong with saving lives and even at a very inexpensive cost.
The person behind this should be rewarded or elected mayor.
billy bob
y can’t they just wear brighter colored clothing
Mark McGreevey
In Finland all the banks had plastic reflective objects, usually representing their emblems, given out free to children. Both children and parents attached them to all outdoor clothing, where it would swing from a string and catch the attention of the drivers in the dark winter streets. If the community’s religious, they could make the letters of the Hebrew alphabet into plastic reflective objects, for learning purposes! Every backpack had long reflective strips on it. Every bicycle had reflectors all over them. You could see these things very well. Adults in dark clothing, like Hassidim, should also do these things.
My only argument is why government money was needed. Couldn’t they hold a bake sale?