"(There's) nothing to really divert traffic. It's just kind of a free for all," Chad said. "My fear is that one of those near misses is going to result in a head-on collision or a t-bone or something to that effect."
Lake Shore Elementary School opened last August. The school faces Breakwater Path Lane, where there is a school zone limiting speed during school hours. But adjacent to the property is West Lake Houston Parkway. Here there's no traffic controls and parents say people regularly run it well above the posted 45 mile per hour speed limit.
"Very high rate of speed everyone's going, kind of scary," said concerned mother Jamie Bird.
Jamie is leading the effort to get Harris County to do something to better control the traffic. She tells us what she doesn't understand is that there are at least five other Humble ISD schools on the very same road within a matter of miles that do have school zones there.
"I don't want to see a child that I've watched grow up get in an accident," Jamie said. "I just don't want to see anyone hurt."
County Commissioner El Franco Lee's office says a traffic study was recently done out here, one which concluded that no school zone was warranted. Humble ISD was told that was because the entrance to the school is not on West Lake Houston and because traffic volume didn't warrant the zone.
But the district is siding with parents. Superintendent Guy Sconzo says the Atascocita area is one of the fastest growing in the country. He concludes that will eventually mean even more traffic here and that the 400-some students attending Lake Shore Elementary now will more than double in size over the next two years.
"It just makes common sense that some kind of controlled traffic via school zones, or at best traffic light, is very much warranted and certainly needed," Sconzo said.
The Humble Independent School District has re-petitioned the county, asking them to do another study to determine if a school zone or other traffic control should be implemented. The county tells us that new study is underway. We'll keep you posted as we find out what happens.
