Double Parking Near Bayside Schools Puts Kids At Risk, Neighbors Say

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Baysiders recalling the tragic death of a local 10-year-old student called on neighbors to practice safer driving near area schools.

"Between the hours of 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. there are so many double parked cars and trucks and SUVs with parents rushing to pick up their children" outside of P.S. 203 wrote Matt Burke on a local Bayside Facebook page. "These double parked vehicles are making it unsafe for other children to get home safely."

For Burke, the congestion near P.S. 203 brings back horrible memories of the death of his childhood friend, Adam Barone. As Burke recalls, Barone was crossing 53rd Avenue in front of the elementary school on May 27, 1978 when he was fatally hit by a motorcyclist who ran a red light.

"That was one of my worst childhood memories watching my best friend being killed in front of me," said Burke, who didn't respond to a request for further comment from Patch.

Neighbors flooded the comments of the post. Many said they remembered the tragic crash; others said they are still worried about street safety in Bayside, especially around neighborhood schools.

One local, who lives up the block from an elementary and middle school, said that nearby streets are particularly dangerous during pick-up and drop-off time.

"What an awful disaster — double parked on both sides with only one visually blocked lane," she wrote. "A disaster waiting to happen."

Another, said the streets near P.S. 169 in Bay Terrace are similar. "Between the construction and parents parking wherever they please, it's impossible to get through the area," she wrote.

A third, said 36th and Bell Boulevard, near the Lutheran School of Bayside, is often congested, too. "I was there the other day and an ambulance was struggling to get past and no one would move," she wrote.

In response to the flood of comments, neighbors questioned what to do in order to make the streets safer.

Some said children should be encouraged to walk or take public transit to school in order to reduce the number of cars on the road. Others said both drivers and pedestrians need to be more alert in order to prevent crashes.

Many suggested that the police should get involved and ticket double parked drivers — an idea that Burke himself said he could get behind; anything it took to get double parked drivers off the street, he said.

"Please can we stop the double parking by schools before another young child.... gets injured or killed like Adam Barone," he pleaded.