Blaney School Head Says Children Here Endangered by Motor Traffic.

To the Editor of The State:

I have read the news notices, editorials and letters from correspondents concerning the Blaney speed trap. I do not know whether any unjust arrests for speeding have been made or not, and I am not writing to justify a speed trap but to inform the public about the speed laws here and why they are enforced.

When the new route was made through Blaney the highway was put within 100 feet of the public school building and the school building its just above a dangerous street crossing where hundred of children are obliged to cross each day. We have 310 pupils in school and three of them have already had narrow escapes from speeding cars. We have a fence around the school grounds and I try to see that the pupils us regular crossing at noon and in the morning and afternoons. The speed rate is 20 miles per hour and considering the street crossing and the lives of 300 children. I can not agree with Mr. R. W. Corsland that 35 miles per hour or even more is a safe speed.

I notice that the speed limit at one school near Columbia college in North Columbia is 12 miles per hour and that the intersection of all the streets about the school building in Camden are marked with a speed limit of six miles. This is done to protect the lives of the children in Columbia and Camden and the speed limit in Blaney is 20 miles in order to protect the lives of school children from reckless driver who come through without regard to the welfare of school children.

During the week of the State fair and the weeks following when the speed officer was ill in the hospital we had two children who narrowly escaped death from the cars of speeding drivers.

I would not like to see the highway taken from Blaney but I know that we would be better off if it were relocated and taken away from the school building, and the signs “Speed Trap Ahead” will probably cause speeding cars to slow down at the school building and at the street intersection. Careful driving with a consideration of the lives and rights of our pupils is all that I ask for.

LEONARD ANDREA.
Superintendent of Schools,
Blaney, November 22.