Crossing where girl struck to be improved

The Park West Boulevard crosswalk where a truck hit an 11-year-old girl last month soon will be equipped with a new $20,000 flashing sign and a crossing guard in an effort to make it safer.

Haley Rogge, a sixth-grader at Cario Middle, was walking in the crosswalk after school when a driver hit her. The impact battered her body, fracturing her skull, splitting her lip and forehead, and scraping her arms and legs.

The incident has brought town, school and police officials together to work on solutions, and the new sign and crossing guard are key parts of their plan to prevent the same scenario from repeating itself.

"I don't know what else we could do, but it's still only going to be as safe as the drivers who go through there," said Jeff Scott, the school district's director of security. "It's a neighborhood road, but it's actually a four-lane highway."

The town plans to spend up to $20,000 on new technology that apparently doesn't exist elsewhere in the county. The closest such sign is in Myrtle Beach. The signs, called Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacon, are activated when a pedestrian pushes a button, and it flashes with bright, solar-powered lights to alert drivers that someone is in the crosswalk. The rapid flashing continues for as long as it typically takes a pedestrian to cross, said Eric DeMoura, town administrator.

"It really grabs the attention of motorists," he said. "And it removes the problem we had, where one of the two lanes is stopped but you can't see the pedestrian moving."

One Federal Highway Administration study looked at crosswalks with standard signs versus those same areas with Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacon signs. The study showed the percentage of drivers who yielded increased from 18 percent to 81 percent.

"If it is as effective as the data indicates, we will explore using them in other locations around town," DeMoura said.

It will take six to eight weeks to receive the signs, and they will be installed as soon as they arrive, he said.

The town also has been stationing police at the crosswalk when students are arriving at and leaving from school, and that will continue until a crossing guard is in place.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office is responsible for deciding which schools receive crossing guards, and it will take some time for that crossing to be evaluated and determine whether a guard is warranted, said Sgt. David Willis, who oversees safety services.

In the meantime, the school district has agreed to pay for a guard to be posted at the crosswalk for the rest of the school year. "I think everyone is trying to step up to the plate and do their part," Scott said. "We all have a stake in this, and I'm hoping it'll get resolved in a positive manner."

Mary Rogge, Haley's mother, called the planned improvements a good idea and thought they would make the crosswalk safer. But it won't change her constant fear that something will happen again to her daughter, nor will it change her daughter's new fear of moving cars, she said.

Life is returning to normal for the Rogges. Mary is working again and grateful for the outpouring of community support, such as co-workers who pooled money to help cover her bills or the group of Awendaw women who anonymously donated gift cards.

Haley feels better, but she's still recovering. She has sharp headaches and back pain, and she hasn't felt well enough to do gymnastics outside in the grass. She's back at school, but she said she'll never try to walk across Park West Boulevard again unless one specific change is made.

"Building a bridge to go over the road," Haley said. "Then, no cars could get to you."