After having three of their classmates involved in auto-pedestrian accidents within weeks, it’s no surprise students walking to Wasatch County High School and their parents have felt uneasy about the trek.
Heber City is still a one high-school community, though another is under construction, and when over 2,500 students attend the same school, stories about broken bones and surgeries and peers in critical condition travel fast.
On Sept. 14, a 14-year-old boy was struck by a van crossing 1200 South and 500 East in Heber City on his way to school. Sept. 27, a girl that same age was hit by an SUV while crossing Heber City’s Main Street at 790 South during the school’s lunch period. Both students were in critical condition following their accidents. And according to school officials, another student was injured in an auto-pedestrian accident on their way home from a homecoming event, though less seriously.
“It’s been a rough few weeks,” Assistant Principal Ryan Bishop said. “Our entire community centers around Wasatch High School, because every kid 14 to 18 in our county has some tie to this high school. It affects everyone.”
While administrators, staff members, community officials and parents began discussing ways to ensure children will be safe walking to and from school, one man took an immediate and simple approach to help.
Principal Justin Kelly personally went to the crossing of Main Street and 790 S. — where most recently as student was by an automobile — and began accompanying kids as they crossed the street.
Kelly didn’t want to talk about his precautionary effort. Wasatch County School District Public Information Officer Kirsta Albert said he’s not the kind of person to pat himself on the back.
“Mr. Kelly just kind of started going down on his own accord and started to get students cross those crosswalks, especially during lunch, safely,” Bishop said. “What it’s done is his ability to just lead by example has really kind of started a grassroots movement with all of our stakeholders — our parents our kids, our staff, even our entire district — to just do what we can one at a time to watch out for student safety.”
While people can hold meetings and discussions in search of solutions, Bishop said, the real key to fixing the issue is for somebody to do something.
That’s not to say guiding students across the road is seen as a permanent answer to safety concerns that only grow with increasing traffic on Heber City’s often busy streets. Bishop said Heber City and Wasatch County are both “in constant partnership with Wasatch County School District.”
“The three entities are doing a nice job of trying to plan for our growth and make sure that all three groups are involved,” Bishop said, discussing more long-term solutions. “But those are things that take time and have to involve multiple entities.”
Several long-term plans to address traffic in Heber City are moving forward. The Utah Department of Transportation’s Heber Valley bypass project is considering five possible routes to divert traffic of Main Street to a route west of the center of town. Heber City’s Heritage Farms Parkway is under construction with the goal of connecting U.S. Highway 40 to Center Street East of the center of town. But Heber City’s project likely won’t be done before spring 2024, and the Utah Department of Transportation bypass likely won’t undergo even the early phases of construction for five to 10 more years.
Kids are walking to school now.
Bishop said the districtwide efforts that Kelly’s just-go-do-something mentality sparked is focused on the kids who are walking to the district’s five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school today.
“We can really take charge of the things that affect the surrounding areas of each building,” Bishop said. “Each building administration has tried to work with their parent partners and the kids in their buildings to take care of the areas around each school. … That’s what we can do right now.”