I’ve got this alley in the back of my house. It’s like a lot of other alleys in Milwaukee – the place for garbage and recycling carts, pick up basketball games, car washing. The one thing that is different about my alley from all the other alleys? A 45° hill that for as long as the oldest resident (the crabby guy on the corner) can remember, has been the perfect place for kids to coast, slide, sled, skate, skateboard, and bike down. It’s a combination luge, bobsled, freestyle skateboard ramp (depends on the season). The perfect place for a speeding, no holds barred cyclist to fly down, cross the street continue on down the next alley, until brakes are applied or one meets up with a pole or careens into the aforementioned garbage carts.
Good clean kid fun. Right? Uh, well, sort of. If everything goes well, no one gets hurt – amazingly, a rare occurrence, because the seasoned veterans have spotters – a kid who stands on the bottom of the hill, usually in the middle of the street, checks for any oncoming cars and then gives the rider, coaster, skateboarder, the “go,” and zzzoooooom!
Not so last Saturday.
Apparently, two kids, on one bike, came flying down the alley and out onto the street and were t-boned by the SUV, driven by the woman. She had no time to react. That was the bad news. The good news? The kids were okay. A broken leg, cuts, bruises.
I hate to use the “perfect storm” cliche, but my street, the alley, the parked cars, inattentive drivers who speed all add up to that sublime conflagration of a bad, bad accident just waiting to happen.
Maybe last week we got lucky. The next two kids? Might not be. How can a future tragedy be prevented? Helmets? Try full body armor. Speed bumps? Oh, boy, now we’re talkin’ serious air.
The evening of the accident, there were a few parents who I saw using it as a teachable moment, pointing out the mangled bike to their kids, “See what happens?” Maybe that worked. The alley has been pretty quite since then. No skid marks.
Of course, the City of Milwaukee was all over it and put up a small, not very visible, SLOW KIDS AT PLAY sign. Whew! I feel sooo much better.
