Opinion
Letter to the editor: Lehi woman urges action with unsafe playground in Traverse area
Dear Editor,
Imagine a mother busy cooking dinner for her family. Her child asks if he can go out to play with a friend, and she says ‘yes.’ How is she to know that the kids will end up chasing a ball from a park into a highway? This highway has a posted speed limit of 55mph, but some cars are going as fast as 60 or 65mph. Little can be done to save a child hit by a car going at such speeds. The mother will mourn for a lifetime.
Some will say she should have been out there with the kids. Some will say drivers should have been paying attention and following the speed limit. But we do not live in a world of “should have.” We can only do our best to take charge of what we can control. It is inevitable that people will not follow rules perfectly all of the time. We must accept human imperfections and build around them.
I am referring to The Vue at Traverse Ridge park on the edge of Timpanogos Highway. This park, with a child’s jungle gym, literally has no fence to keep kids in. There is a rock strip between the park and the highway, but anyone who has spent at least one afternoon observing kids knows that isn’t enough to stop them. I should know, I have eleven little cousins between the ages of two and ten. When a child loses a ball, all they think about is retrieving it. They don’t realize that they are stepping into deadly traffic. Children are innocent. They don’t question the safety of a situation. We must do what we can to protect them.
I don’t know a lot about codes or standards or whatever inspectors look for in a new establishment’s blueprints, but I do know that children’s safety should not be overlooked. I am calling for a policy change, starting with this park. Parks shouldn’t be built near a highway in the first place, but, if need be, there should be a child proof fence. We can’t let children’s safety be underbudgeted or inconvenienced. Child safety should be one of the most important inspections on the list. I am disappointed with how this park turned out. We shouldn’t wait for an accident to happen. We need to act now.
The fictional mother in this story doesn’t need to become a reality. This park and others like it need to be safe for children. I encourage all policy makers involved in this situation to look into what inspections are actually about: convenience or safety?
Annabelle Burns
Lehi, Utah
