Delehanty Urges Motorists to Drive Carefully with Schools Open

With the start of the new school year this week, Winthrop Police Chief Terence Delehanty has a message for Winthrop motorists: Drive carefully and exercise caution on the roads, especially in the areas around the schools.

“We want to make sure everyone begins a wonderful and safe school year,” said Delehanty. “We want to make sure that children are crossing at crosswalks and not crossing in between vehicles. We hope parents are leaving early to allow for some back-up traffic, such as experience on Revere Street at the entrance to the Gorman/Fort Banks School. Give yourself extra time so you’re not in a hurry.”

Delehanty said he will assign a police officer to traffic duties on Revere Street during the school year.

“We hope all these precautions will help produce a safer community,” said Delehanty. “We’ve been working with the DPW to make sure the sidewalks are painted and they’ve done a wonderful job in doing that. Now it just comes down to ‘Let’s slow everyone down traffic wise and people rushing around and being hectic so they don’t forget the value of  safety in a small community such as Winthrop.”

Delehanty said the streets present a challenge during high-traffic time periods.

“These are hard streets to navigate, especially” when you add a few hundred students to them in the morning. Everyone is trying to rush off to work and we understand that. We advise that kids walking to school should wear bright clothing and make sure they don’t cross between two vehicles where they cannot be seen. We advise students to cross on the crosswalks for a safer trip to school.”