I recently offered advice to a friend who lamented not going out much since he had his first child about a year ago. "Take him everywhere," I told him, "before he has something to say about it."
As much as my wife and I once counted down the days to not lugging a stroller, car seat or diaper bag every time we loaded up the kids into the minivan, little could we have known at the time that the trade-off could be even more of a hassle. My two teenagers are old enough to have opinions about everything we do, and every place we go.
Long gone are the days of plopping our kids into their seats, buckling them in and pulling away, with nary a comment, other than, "Where are we going, Daddy?" or "Can we get ice cream?"
I was reminded of those years when recently revisiting the story of Chantel Solomon, who was just 6 when the 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe driven by her grandfather was rear-ended by a driver who was going 120 miles per hour.
Chantel, her grandpa Patrice Huntley, 60, and two other family members, ages 10 and 13, were killed in the crash, which happened in August 2023 -- one of the deadliest months on Long Island's roads in a decade.
Much is often made of the role of personal responsibility in crashes, whether it's a motorist texting while driving, an adult passenger who knowingly gets in the car with a drunken driver, or even a pedestrian who crosses against the light.
But the question of personal responsibility is removed when talking about the littlest, and most innocent victims of traffic violence. The reason that young children sometimes make the easiest traveling partners is the same reason they are the most vulnerable ones: They're just along for the ride. Often, they don't even know where they're headed, but they trust that the grown-up at the wheel knows what they're doing, and will keep them safe.
It's why, among the hundreds of horrific crashes on Long Island's roads each year, the ones involving children seem particularly senseless -- and there's way too many of them. As Newsday reported in March, traffic crashes were the leading cause of accidental death among young people ages 5 to 19 on Long Island from 2018 to 2023.
Tragically, among those statistics is Chantel Solomon, the adorable little girl who was removed from life support a week after she took that ride with her grandfather, heading out to celebrate him landing a new job. They were going to get ice cream.
We've asked you for some of your ideas on how to protect pedestrians on Long Island's dangerous roads. This reader offered some relatively simple solutions that she believes can make all the difference.
As someone who's a frequent walker, I've personally witnessed severe car accidents at intersections that are prone to car accidents. Some of these prone car accident intersections also have pedestrian fatalities and/or hit and runs. Some solutions would be to include speedometers in accident prone locations, enacting pedestrian traffic lights, and having turning lane lines painted clearly and visible to the driver and pedestrian.
Lilly Riggs, South Shore, Nassau
What are some other ideas -- either out-of-the-box or very much in it -- on how to make crosswalks safer? Let us know at [email protected]