How is the best way to get a 4-way stop sign put in, in a borough?

The borough council voted against it a few years ago. They feel that the road in question is an important throughway, that shouldn't have a stop sign.

However, its a busy road, between the highschool and the downtown, which many kids walk on, to and from school, playgrounds etc. No one ever follows the 25 mph speedlimit. There are frequent accidents at this intersection.

Are police records (of accidents) public record?

Can anyone help?

I'm not familiar with your system in PA, being on the far side of the country, but in general, you can request a stop sign, or traffic light, from your local traffic authority, supporting your request with the information that the crossing is used by children going to and from school. You probably can't compel a change unless there's an actual injury accident at the intersection, though. For all that we denigrate them, the words "I told you so" are the only ones that cut any ice with government agencies.

We have a lot of that problem out here, owing to extremely rapid population growth.

Alan Moore

Yes, police records are open to the public...
The best way to get your problem done, is to get the neighborhood to sign a petition, havae the local Radio and TV stations to cover it, have a picket line of protesters (for)....Dosen't make a hoot and holler who voted against it before... When they see what you can do, believe me, they will change their minds... (if they have one that is)...

Fritz is right. A petition is the best thing, combined with publicity. If anyone has video of cars travelling fast along there, and also videos of children trying to cross the street, you will be the darling of a local TV station. Try to get signatures of parents whose children have to walk across that street to get to school. The younger the child, the better it will be. Interview any crossing guards, too. The more information you can publicize, the more likely you are to get results.

Thanks guys.

There has already been one petition signed a few years before we bought the house.

There have been at least 3 dozen accidents at this intersection since we moved in 5 years ago. The most recent sent a girl to the hospital.

The townships argument is that our shrubs interfered with the right of way, so we have now cut them down. The problem with that argument is that the accidents are usually caused from someone heading the opposite direction. Thats why I asked about the police reports.

I did write our local newstation and haven't heard back from them, but maybe if I do more research, it will look like a better story to them.

Check the newspaper's morgue for reports on the accidents. Get pictures of the spot where the bushes were trimmed/cut. If the city sent you anything, or if you can remember exactly who said what, the city's previous position can be erroneous. You can also say that, after the city told you that it was your bushes that caused the problem, you took steps and removed the bushes, and yet the problem stll exists.

Well DG thats definitely the plan, except that in the letter they sent, they also made reference to the possibility of removing our fence as well. They are doing everything they can to keep from having to put in the 4way stop.

I guess my fear is that they will wait until someone dies (and since my kids are right there, will it be one of them?) before they make the change.

Things of this nature seem to get taken care of quickly after someone goes to one of the local news channels about it and the situation is featured at 5 & 11.