Christine and Patrick Crispen deal with speeding cars, construction trucks and crumpled traffic poles every day when they drop off their three-and-a-half year old son, Joseph.
“I was getting Joseph out of the car, and the cars were flying down. I couldn’t cross,” Christine Crispen, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medical Education said, “I didn’t move him away from the corner of the car because there was probably ten or 15 cars just hauling in calling through and I’m just like ‘This is nuts.’”
The Crispens—and many other parents—believe the drop-off and pick-up zones at the center are unsafe for children to use at the Alcazar Child Development Center at the USC Health Sciences Campus.
“I would basically be walking them through this dark parking structure and I would see a number of cars sort of drive fast by us, so I would grab both of their hands,” said Andrew Mackay, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a parent.
The space for curbside drop-off can only fit about eight cars, and sometimes there are trucks in those spots.
“Right now we've been dealing with that basically by unfortunately parking in red zones so hopefully no one will come and see,” Mackay said.
The garage has a front exit which puts children right onto a crosswalk that leads to a sidewalk. However, that rarely has spots close to it, so parents must use the back exit that opens right into the street and oncoming traffic.
According to emails obtained by Annenberg Media, parents were told by daycare officials the back exit is an emergency exit only, and everyone should walk through the garage and go through the front exit. The garage, though, has no speed bumps or signs indicating people are walking, so many cars speed around turns, worrying parents.
“When the layout of Bright Horizons was finally finalized, and it had turned out that’s not a safe path of travel, the only recommendation we had was for parents to continue to use the inside of the structure to stay safe because we don’t want people walking down Trojan Way,” Associate Director of USC Transportation David Donovan said.
“It’s not communicated in any way to somebody pulling into that structure as a visitor, a new student, that children are going to be walking around in there,” said Jill Henley, research facility manager at the Keck School of Medicine and also a parent.
When USC Annenberg Media was at the garage, many parents resorted to walking down the street from the back exit while carrying their child, instead of walking in the garage.
According to the meeting minutes and emails obtained by Annenberg Media, the parents brought their concerns to three official meetings with USC and the daycare center contractor, Bright Horizons, beginning about six months ago. After the last of the meetings in August, USC stopped showing up.
“It is clear that the actual desires of the parents who are using these child development centers aren’t seen as a strategic priority for the university, even though they are,” Mackay said.
Although USC added speed bumps and traffic poles to the drop-off area in the summer, they have not changed the parking structure. Crispen said the university’s response to repeated parents’ concerns was that they were aware of the issue.
“We’ve heard the speeding concern before, and we’re taking steps to mitigate that. We received a bid earlier this calendar year to put speed bumps in the structure. Not just one or two, but I think it’s seven or eight,” Donovan told Annenberg Media.
In the meantime, traffic in the area isn’t going away. But Joseph is comfortable with his teacher now, so the Crispens don’t want to leave either.
“I really think that if a child were hurt because of this, I would probably pull him out. Because if it can happen to any child, then it can happen to my child,” Crispen said.
She doesn’t want it to take a tragedy to spur USC to action. She knows the cost of a misstep would be too great.
“If you have multiple kids or you turn your back for half a second it could be a disaster. I don’t know that that has happened yet, but I don’t think it’s unfathomable that it couldn’t happen,” Crispen said. “So I’d love to see [the university] recognize how dangerous that really is.
USC said parents or anyone who wants to contact the university can email transportation.ad@usc.edu. You also can send news tips related to this topic to sochocki@usc.edu.