“It wasn’t there to save her,” Mongold said, with tears in her eyes the morning after she presented her petition, “but it might be there to save the next one.”
Mongold’s daughter, Kayla Mongold, was struck and killed by a speeding SUV while she was walking along North Murray Street in July 2012. The stretch of the street between Water Street and Chestnut Avenue does not have sidewalks on either side.
The week after her daughter’s death, Gloria Mongold started the petition to erect a guardrail on North Murray Street where the roadway curves at Chestnut Avenue.
“We first set it out at Kayla’s funeral,” she said, “so that when people signed in, they could sign the petition right then. We’ve been collecting signatures ever since.”
The city is investigating what can be done to that area of the roadway to make the path safer for foot traffic, said Springfield City Engineer Leo Shanayda. There are certain guidelines such as the speed limit on the road, its slope and whether there are curbs or not, that affect whether a guardrail can be erected, he said.
Gloria Mongold said she is hopeful that the city will move to make the roadway safer. After the city commissioner’s meeting, she said multiple commissioners same up to her and said they would look into what the city could do.
“They just need to put something up there that if someone goes out of control or loses control on that curve again, the people that are walking there or standing there would have a little bit more protection,” Gloria Mongold said.
The engineer’s office hopes to sit down and discuss options for the roadway with Gloria Mongold in the next week, Shanayda said.
Neighbors near the curve said they would welcome anything that would make the road safer. Delores Ball moved into her home on North Murray Street near the curve over the Independence Day weekend and said the speed of vehicles that pass by combined with the amount of foot traffic concerns her.
“There are a lot of children that ride their bikes to go over to the bike path and they walk over there with their skateboard stuff,” Ball said.
A guardrail and signs warning drivers about pedestrians would make the roadway safer for walkers and bikers, she said.
About the Author