HAVERHILL — The potentially treacherous walk across Bethany Avenue to get to Market Basket and other stores in Central Plaza is about to become safer.
Two men who frequently walk that route recently told The Eagle-Tribune how dangerous it can be, with tractor-trailers using Bethany Avenue to get to Market Basket. Representatives of the nearby Merrivista senior housing also spoke to City Council William Macek about the situation and he asked the council to authorize the erection of more visible signs at the crosswalk.
City Councilor David Hall, a retired police sergeant who heads the council's Public Safety Committee, said Patrolman Ed Watson, the Police Department's traffic and safety officer, recently investigated the crosswalk and has made two recommendations:
First, the crosswalk's location should be changed, because it puts pedestrians too close to the entrance to the plaza; and second, according to Watson, the folks who use the crosswalk, most of whom happen to be elderly, often do not look both ways before venturing across the street.
Hall said state law requires motorists to yield to pedestrians who are in crosswalks. Drivers who fail to let a pedestrian proceed in a crosswalk can be fined as much as $100, he noted.
The pedestrians, however, must "use common sense" and look both ways before crossing. Hall said Patrolman Timothy Donovan, the department's liaison with senior citizens, will meet with the residents of Merrivista and review basic rules of safe walking.
"We're not trying to insult their intelligence," Hall said. When the weather improves, he added, the Highway Department will move the crosswalk and erect "proper signage."
"Something good is going to come of this," Hall said. "We're moving in the right direction."
Macek, who called for better signs for the crosswalk at the Dec. 15 council meeting, called the actions by Hall and the Police Department "a positive development."
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