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DDOT addresses safety concerns on Wheeler Road after several recent crashes

On Friday, a driver hit and injured a nine-year-old boy on Wheeler Road as he was leaving school.

WASHINGTON — District Department of Transportation (DDOT) staffers were busy in several D.C. neighborhoods Monday after a pair of high-profile collisions involving children last week.

On Friday afternoon, drivers hit two separate nine-year-old boys on D.C. streets around the close of the school day.

A driver hit and injured a child along Wheeler Road SE, near the Kipp Honor Academy just an hour before another driver struck a nine-year-old on a bike at the intersection of Gales and 21st Streets NE in D.C.’s Kingman Park neighborhood.

Both children survived those incidents.

On Monday, a driver hit yet another person at the intersection of Wheeler Road and Mississippi Avenue SE around noon. D.C. Police said that person was conscious and breathing at the scene. Then, around 9 p.m., at the same intersection, two cars also collided with one another.

That intersection is two blocks away from where the nine-year-old boy was hit outside Kipp Honor Academy.

In all, WUSA9 has reported drivers striking at least six different people, along a nine-block stretch of Wheeler Road SE, since October.

“People continuously speed up and down the street,” ANC 8C Commission Chair Salim Adofo.

However, Adofo said he was pleased to see DDOT out in his community Monday, where a two-block stretch of Wheeler Road will be closed until at least Tuesday, according to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

DDOT installed a speed camera near the corner of Wheeler Road and Congress Street SE two days ahead of schedule.

The department has plans to set up another speed camera on Wheeler Road, nearby, soon.

“DDOT did work to get the cameras and we got speed bumps on some of the other cross streets,” Adofo said.

Bowser answered questions about safety concerns along Wheeler Road Monday. She said while District government is working to make that road safer, drivers also need to do their part to ensure that area becomes less dangerous as well.

“We are focused on what we can do as the city to make improvements to a roadway,” she said. “But we're also mindful of what drivers can do to operate their vehicles safely in the District.”

Adofo agreed.

“Get off your cell phone,” he said. “Try your best to obey all of the traffic laws.”

However, some other local leaders have been critical of DDOT’s response to safety concerns in their respective neighborhoods.

DDOT staff members visited Kingman Park Monday morning to assess roadway concerns there. ANC Tamara Blair recently told WUSA9 the department had not done enough to address issues at the intersection of Gales and 21st Streets despite being aware of them for years.

The father of the boy who was hit at that intersection Friday said the District needs to work faster to resolve such traffic safety issues.

“I mean, do your job,” Zeek Dziekan said. “Seems pretty easy to me. You have one job. It is to make the streets safe and, clearly, that's not happening in this part of Kingman Park right now."

WUSA9 reached out to DDOT to see if its acting director, Everett Lott, would like to respond to those criticisms of his department.

Lott sent the following response:

“We have deployed our DDOT safety team to the crash sites involving pedestrians that happened over the weekend. They look at the conditions on the ground, speak to the community members, and determine what safety measures can be immediately taken. This is part of DDOT’s rapid response process and happens in conjunction with our annual safety improvement program, which since October 1, has resulted in the completion of 100 safety improvement projects across the District.”

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