Talk about one determined parent! A concerned mother in Springfield, Missouri has been incessantly making phone calls to parents and city officials alike as a means to draw attention to the dreadful traffic congestion on Ingram Mill Road. The mother, Angela Stephens, believes the jam is a safety threat to all who attend Glendale High School.
Stephens, who has a freshman son at Glendale, said the situation is worse during bad weather as parents flock to the school to fetch their kids. She is dumbfounded that the matter has yet to be resolved.
"It is only a matter of time until we hear it on the news that a child or mother or grandparent has been killed," Stephens wrote in a statement shared to News-Leader. "You have a retirement community south of Glendale, single parents in apartments on Ingram Mill Road and kids who walk home."
Police captain Ben King revealed that Stephens has been the only one to register a complaint thus far. Nevertheless, her ceaseless effort has paid off. City officials and school administrators are now scheduling a meeting with the police to try and come up with a solution.
It can be remembered that the area experienced major traffic jams last month as contractors demolished the south half of the Battlefield Road bridge near Glendale, as per Ozarks Traffic. The bridge replacement project over Route 65 proved to be costlier than its $12.5 million funding. Many motorists had no other option but to endure the hazardous traffic.
Teresa Bledsoe, the spokesperson for Springfield Public Schools, agreed that congestion in the area was an accident waiting to happen. She said the district is currently looking for ways to ease traffic flow, such as modifying entry points at Westport Elementary and Middle School and Jeffries Elementary School.
For her part, Stephens admitted that it wasn't her job to work on a solution. She did suggest that Glendale alumni could be tapped to raise funding for the area's traffic problem.
