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Dennis Evanosky

A pedestrian on his cell phone manages to cross Grand Street and San Antonio safely.

The Franklin School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is asking drivers to slow down near the crosswalks around Franklin Elementary School. In the last year, parents and students have experienced a number of close calls on these crosswalks.

In October, parents Paul and Kerry Nyulassie were walking their sixyear old daughter across the street in the crosswalk at Grand Street and San Antonio Avenue when a stream of cars almost hit them.

"While all three of us walked to the middle of the cross-walk, cars flew by us with little concern," Paul Nyulassie said.

Parent Shalom Bruhn also experienced a similar incident at the same crossing. "I was traveling south on Grand and stopped at the San Antonio intersection to let a young man cross," Bruhn said. "An oncoming vehicle stopped so the boy proceeded, then a vehicle went around the stopped northbound car and barely stopped within three feet of hitting this young boy."

When Bruhn tried to visually shame the audacious northbound driver, the driver flipped him off.

One January morning, parent Lisa Zenner witnessed a very close call at the Paru Street and Encinal Avenue crosswalk. Zenner watched as a fifth-grader and a crossing guard quickly moved out of the way of a speeding blue Subaru as it went right through the designated crossing.

The crossing guard for that Paru Street crossing confirmed that this was just one of many similar incidents.

The crosswalks at Paru and Encinal and at Grand and San Antonio are not the only troublesome crossings. Franklin parents say there have also been numerous student related traffic incidents at the Encinal Avenue and Grand Street and San Jose Avenue and Grand Street crosswalks.

The city has taken steps to prevent traffic accidents around Franklin Elementary School. The Alameda Police Department (APD) recently began stationing traffic officers near the Paru-Encinal intersection. The Public Works Department installed a crossing guard at the Grand-San Jose crosswalk, just a block away from the crosswalk at Grand and San Antonio.

Public Works would have installed a crossing guard at the San Antonio crossing on Grand Street, but determined that traffic backup from the lights on Grand and Encinal would put kids in danger.

Both APD and Public Works suggest that parents create "walking trains" to help students cross intersections near Franklin. The departments also handed out safe school route maps to help kids get home safely.

However, the PTA is not satisfied with the city's efforts and feels that the city should install a crossing guard at Grand and San Antonio because that crossing is closer to Franklin and more likely to be used by unsupervised children.

The PTA also wants a four-way stop sign installed at Paru and Encinal, as well as visible crosswalks across the sections of Central, Santa Clara and Lincoln avenues near Franklin. Franklin students frequently walk the three avenues home, and are frequently in danger.