Excessive speeding has long been a concern for residents of the Bronx, but one woman has had enough after a car struck and killed her beloved pet.
Paulding Avenue resident, Diane Jungk, showed up at the Morris Park/Van Nest committee meeting of Community Board 11 on Tuesday, February 10, to ask the board to reduce the hazardous speeding on her block between Neill and Rhinelander avenues.
“Over the last three years I would say it has been really bad here with the speeding,” said Jungk.
Though this had been something residents noticed in the past, Jungk did not take action until a fast-moving vehicle zoomed down the block and hit her cat, William, leaving him with sever injures that caused his death soon after. According to neighbors, the car briefly hesitated and then sped away from the accident scene.
What worry’s Jungk is that the accident occurred at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21, at a time when it could have easily been a child leaving a school, such as St. Clare of Assisi, on Hone Avenue.
“That could have been a child, that car could not have stopped in time at the speed he was going,” said Jungk. “We are on a slight crest of a hill, so sometimes drivers can’t see the stop sign at the end as they gun it down the block.”
Though the school is on Hone, the rear of the building and schoolyard are along Paulding.
“There is a church there, with elderly people walking to Mass and kids going to and from school, and people do speed down that block,” said Al D’Angelo, CB11 member and president of the Morris Park Community Association.
The matter will be brought to the full board meeting on Thursday, February 26. A motion to request a speed hump on the block, as well as signage indicating a school is near are some of the items Jungk believes would make the block safer.
Jungk will be seeking the support of residents in signing a petition,
