Parents Still Pushing for Crossing Guard Near P.S. 130 in Windsor Terrace

WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN — Windsor Terrace community members are still pushing for the NYPD to assign a crossing guard to the intersection of Caton Avenue and Ocean Parkway near P.S. 130 — though progress is reportedly being made.

The corner is close to the intersection of E. 7th Street and Caton Avenue, where in November 2014, 14-year-old Mohammad Uddin, a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, was struck by a car and killed.

For months, locals have been raising concerns about the intersection of Caton and Ocean Parkway.

"The cars turning left onto Ocean Parkway just do not pay attention to anybody," said Nate Gray, whose son and daughter are in first grade and pre-school, respectively, at P.S. 130.

As of September, an online petition calling for a crossing guard at the intersection had received more than 250 signatures. That number was up to 312 as of Oct. 27, and Gray said he'd collected another 150 signatures in person.

Traffic control agents (TEAs) and crossing guards are both employees of the NYPD, and are assigned to specific locations by the precincts they work in.

Each precinct receives money for a certain number of crossing guards in its budget, with 41 paid for this year in the 72nd Precinct (which patrols Windsor Terrace), according to Jeremy Laufner, the district manager of Community Board 7.

Gray said that after productive conversations with the 72nd and staffers from the offices of Assemblyman Jim Brennan and City Councilman Brad Lander (who has backed other area pedestrian safety efforts), a TEA was placed at the intersection of Caton and Ocean Parkway. Gray said the TEA has been on the job since the beginning of October.

But the father said he and other parents still want a crossing guard permanently assigned there, as TEAs are assigned to locations on an as-needed basis.

Gray said he received an email from NYPD Officer Daniel McGrath, the Neighborhood Coordinating Officer in charge of the area around P.S. 130, stating that a crossing guard had been requested, though the status of that request remained unclear. The NYPD didn't return a request for comment on Thursday. A spokesman for Lander's office also couldn't be reached.

Laufner said he, too, was seeking information. If the 72nd doesn't have a crossing guard to spare, it might have to request more money from the city to hire one, he said. However, he said another option would be to move an unused crossing guard from another precinct to Caton and Ocean Parkway.

In the meantime, Laufner said he was "trying to make sure that the TEA is permanent until we have a permanent crossing guard at that location."

Pictured at top: the intersection of Caton Avenue and Ocean Parkway just south of P.S. 130. Image via Google Maps.