Residents Seek Safety Solutions For 'Small But Mighty' Greenwich Street

GREENWICH, CT — Residents of a small Cos Cob dead-end street are looking for safety solutions after several children and dogs were almost hit by a speeding car last month.

Tremont Street resident Lauren Shadford appeared before the Board of Selectmen last week asking for guidance on how to increase safety on the "small but mighty" stretch of roadway.

Shadford said an incident in October exacerbated an existing problem of drivers speeding up a blind hill thinking the road is a pass through to Orchard Street.

"There's a hill on Tremont leading towards the dead end, and we think some map apps show it's a pass through to Orchard, other map apps show it's a turnaround, but it's actually a private driveway," Shadford explained. "Because of this, we get a lot of cars flying over this hill towards the dead end."

In early October, Shadford said the neighborhood "narrowly avoided a real tragedy" when a car came over the hill going about 50 mph while children were playing in the street.

"All of the families were outside, all of the parents were outside and the kids were on their bikes and the dogs were running around, and this woman came absolutely raging over the hill, I think, thinking she was going to Orchard but it was a dead end," Shadford said.

"By the grace of God, the kids were not in the middle of the street at that moment. Had they been, we would've been in a serious tragedy moment, because there was no way this person could have stopped. There was a lot of yelling, there was a bit of crying, and there was a ton of anger afterwards," Shadford added, noting existing dead-end signs don't appear to be helping.

"The fear and the rage kind of coalesced into, 'Ok, what do we do now?'" she said.

Shadford said many neighborhood children use a shortcut from Tremont to Shubert Lane to go to and from Central Middle School, so the issue extends outside of just the residents who live on Tremont.

"We'd really just love some guidance to figure out what is the right thing to do. We know this is a small residential street, we know it's a dead end, it's not the Post Road, this is not an issue that's affecting thousands of people, but it's really our kids' safety and we just want to figure out what to do and we don't know," Shadford said.

Parents have even sat in folding chairs at the top of the hill to keep watch, something Shadford said isn't exactly a long-term solution.

Cara Whritenour, another Tremont Street resident, said "you can't see anything" going over the hill.

"It is a problem, because our children are always in the street, and it's a fun street to live on," she said.

First Selectman Fred Camillo, a Cos Cob native, said he was familiar with the area and acknowledged "there is an issue here."

"These things are never easily solved, but there are things we can do. Sometimes people say, 'Why can't you stick a sign or a light there?' We always have to do studies first, and the state has to approve it," Camillo noted. "Once you go over this hill, you don't know what's on the other side. We certainly will continue looking at this and seeing what we can do."

Deputy Commissioner of Greenwich Public Works Gabriella Circosta-Cohee said the department has seen an uptick in complaints related to GPS routes in recent weeks.

DPW staff has been researching the issue on Tremont Street, and found that the four major GPS companies do not have a direct connection between Tremont and Orchard, but there could have been a connection at some point, Circosta-Cohee said.

"However, we did determine that a larger dead-end sign is definitely needed at this location, but it takes some time. We have traffic counters to collect the data and take a look at everything, and make further recommendations," Circosta-Cohee added. "It is something we have an investigation file open for."