Speed ​​Bump's petition receives support after the child was killed by car in Springfield

Springfield Heather Rivera laughed when she remembered her “cheeky” 6-year-old granddaughter, who called her “Hamma” and her grandfather “Hampa” when she learned to speak.

But this laugh became sadness when she talked about how her grandchild Khloe Rosario Quinones was hit and killed by a car on May 12th when he played with other children in front of her house in Newland Street.

Rivera found that no other parent or grandparent in the neighborhood of Brightwood is exposed to the same pain that is going through her family and began a campaign to add speed complaints in Newland Street.

“She was a great baby. Sassy,” said Rivera. “She was loved by everyone.”

Khloe, who likes to dance, was Rivera's only granddaughter. She also leaves her mother -teaching Quinones, Father Wilfredo Rosario, several siblings and many other close family members, she said.

On May 12th, Khloe played in her front yard and ran by bike when she hit a car shortly before 5 p.m., said Rivera.

She was brought to the nearby Baystate Medical Center in a private vehicle and died in the hospital, said police spokesman Ryan Walsh.

“All parties involved were taken into account,” said the police shortly after the crash. Khloe's death is examined by the Springfield Police traffic unit and the murder unit for motor vehicles.

Since then, the police have published only a few details and transferred all other questions to the district prosecutor of Hampden, Anthony Gulluni. A spokeswoman for Gulluni said the investigation was not yet complete, but did not comment on.

Rivera said her granddaughter, a kindergarten teacher at the Brightwood Elementary School, was met by a driver who grabbed the residential street.

“There are many children, not just on the street, but in the entire neighborhood,” she said.

The place where it was beaten is marked with flowers that were left by friends and family members.

Rivera started a petition on Change.org to get support for the installation of speed floors in Newland Street in order to force the drivers to slower. She collected almost 600 signatures online and others from her neighbors in Brightwood. People can sign online to support the efforts to place speed beads at www.change.org/springfieldspeedbumps

Rivera said she hopes that the petition will convince the city council to install three speed bodies on the street, one at every end and a third in the middle near her granddaughter.

City Councilor Maria Perez, which represents the Brightwood district, said she was in contact with Rivera and Quinones and begins the process to install the speeds and to look at other ways to slow down traffic.

Perez said that she works with Christopher Cignoli, the city's public work department, to start the process.

“We will put together a community meeting to talk about it,” she said.

In the short time in which she collected signatures, Rivera said that she was enthusiastic to see that she also received support from other city officials, including school member Joesiah Gonzalez, who signed the petition.

Gonzalez, which represents the Brightwood area, is running for the city council this year. He said he was not just a city official: he is a neighbor who has a Heimat -one -Straße from Newland, and he is the parent of a daughter who is one year younger than Khloe.

“It's terrible,” said Gonzalez. “It is a densely populated neighborhood with many children.

The problem is that the neighborhood between two main roads, the Plainfield Street and the Riverside Road, which run approximately in parallel to each other. The neighborhood is located between these streets, and the drivers cut through the side streets such as Newland, Obstgarten and Washburn without slowing down. The side streets are tight and the cars are parked on both sides, which makes it difficult to see someone, especially a child, at high speed.

It is not just the speed crossing that is a problem. People also look music and have loudly installed market disorders to create problems with the quality of life, he said.

Based on the fact, there are three primary schools – Brightwood, Lincoln and Gerena Gerena – and the Chestnut Middle School, which serves the neighborhood, Gonzalez estimated that around 2,000 children live in the region. He said her parents shouldn't have to worry about playing outside in their own farms.

He praised Rivera for her advocacy and her efforts to make a difference in the neighborhood.

“This is not a fault. In order to get measures to such things, it requires community efforts,” he said.

While Gonzalez said he was to install speed complaints in Newland Street, he said, he knows that it will take some time. He promised to work together with police director Lawrence Akers, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, to his members of the school committee and those in the city council to try to maintain a committed implementation in the neighborhood.

“We have to be there to stop Speeder, towing cars that are not registered and insured, and cars that are clearly equipped with the drag race,” he said. “Let us put a fire under the butt of the other. The community needs us to do it.”