Written By: Kayla Rojas
The town of East Meadow is located in Nassau County, and is home to about 38,078 people. According to many individuals who live there, they consider it to be “one of the nicest places to live in New York”. There’s just one major issue that keeps coming up countless times. Stop signs.
The “stop sign issue” is an ongoing problem for the community of East Meadow. It is not just one particular stop sign, it’s a whole lot of them. There have been various news articles in the local paper that have picked up this story in order to bring awareness to this, but there never seems to be an answer. No matter how many residents complain to their town representatives, this matter seems to be overlooked. In order to get a taste of the subject at hand, I made sure to interview four different residents who reside in East Meadow. I wanted to get each person’s own account and experience to help understand why people in this community are “fed up”.
The first person I interviewed is a twenty-five year old male named Anthony Jose. Anthony was born in Queens, New York but later moved to Long Island when he was nineteen years old. “This has been going on ever since I moved out to Long Island”, he shared with me. One of the things that I found to be very telling was a comment that Anthony made about drivers in Queens, and drivers in East Meadow. “People in Queens don’t care how they drive. They drive crazy and recklessly most of the time. People are more in a hurry over there. When I moved here, I thought things would be different. Especially once it came to the drivers, but that isn’t the case”. I made sure to ask him how he felt about drivers not following basic traffic laws when it came to the stop signs, and he had this to say. “ I dislike it. There are cars that don't stop when I have the right of way and I’m making my turn”. Anthony also disclosed to me a time he almost got into a car accident because someone didn’t stop. “There was this one time I was driving with my girlfriend in the car. This careless teenage driver was on her phone, talking to her friend in the passenger seat, and was speeding. I got to the stop sign first, I stopped and was about to continue driving. She didn’t stop. I pressed so hard on the brakes. She almost hit the passenger side where my girlfriend was”. Another question I asked Anthony was if he had done anything to help combat this issue. He said to me, “No. I haven’t. I expect drivers to know better when on the road. We all learned the same lessons, so we all should know how a stop sign works”.
The next person I interviewed was a former New Jersey resident named Luis Rojas. Luis is a fifty-three years old school security guard. He has been living in East Meadow for over twenty years. “I have been living here for twenty-six years, and I don’t think it has ever been this bad before”. Luis told me that the amount of drivers not stopping has increased rapidly. “This has been going on for several years. It’s not like it’s just the stop signs by my house, it’s pretty much all the stop signs in this area”. One of the biggest concerns that Luis had about people blowing the stop signs was for the children in his neighborhood. “I hate that this is still an issue. This causes a huge safety concern for the children in my community. There are so many young kids who play outside and ride their bikes. God forbid something happens to them because some idiot doesn’t want to stop”.
The last resident I interviewed is a mother of four named Carolina Zelaya. At the age of two, Carolina and her family moved to the United States from Costa Rica. She moved to East Meadow when she was ten years old, and she has been living here ever since. Carolina explained to me that the stop sign at the corner of her home poses a real threat to her and her neighbors. The first question I asked her was “how does she feel that drivers run the stop sign”? She responded with, “If I’m being honest, it makes me very upset and frustrated. It truly worries me because I have a fear that I am going to get hurt. Ever since my son got into an accident at a stop sign because the driver didn’t stop, it's very triggering”. After discussing the details of her son's accident, she revealed to me that she and her dog were almost ran over at the infamous stop sign by her home. “There was one time I was walking my dog by that particular stop sign. I went to go cross the street, and out of nowhere this car sped right through the stop sign. He didn’t even make the slightest effort to stop. I was so startled. I went home immediately and told my family about it”. That afternoon, Carolina had her daughter call to report this concern. Her daughter, Alissa had this to say about the call. “The call wasn’t really effective. I wasn’t sure who to call, so I called my local precinct. The precinct led me to the town representative, and they led me to my district legislature. The legislature and I had a quick conversation. He told me that unfortunately there ‘aren’t enough police resources to stop this problem from happening’. How long does this have to go on? Until someone gets hurt”?
Each of the residents had their own different experiences that gave insight to this terrible safety hazard. The last question that I asked each of them was, “what do you think should be done in order to combat this problem”? Anthony told me, “I think having a speed bump is a perfect idea. They should put the speed bump in front of the stop sign, that way drivers would have no choice but to stop”. Carolina also advised the idea of a speed bump. She stated, “I would like some speed bumps put in, or every so often an officer comes to supervise the area. We have a lot of children who play on the streets. I think there should also be a refresher course for those who need to brush up on their road signs, because it seems like the drivers are forgetting the laws”. The last person who gave their opinion for what they think should be done was Luis. He proposed that there needs to be more police involvement. “I think police officers need to be more aware of what is going on in this neighborhood. You never see a police officer around here. They have to show their presence, and they actually have to make these stops”.
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