You are turning left out of the main entrance of Staples High School to get home from school. All you want after an exhausting day of hard work is a smooth and easy drive home. But as soon as it’s your turn in line to pull out of the school onto North Ave., your heart starts to race and your palms get sweaty. Cars are coming at you from both sides of the road at what seems to be 100 miles per hour. There are hundreds of eager, impatient students in line behind you adding to the pressure.
This would be the allegedly dangerous left turn out of the main entrance of Staples that so many students must face in order to get home from school every day.
“The left [turn] is impossible because North Ave. is way too busy all the time,” said Chris Mombello ’14. Mombello also said he feels “terrified, always” when he is making the turn.
”Making the left turn out of Staples is difficult because you have to pull up really far to see the cars coming from both directions and there’s usually a lot of cars going fast…”Liv Blevins ’15 said.
Students aren’t the only ones who have trouble with this turn. Even experienced drivers like teachers have a difficult time.
“I do find it quite harrowing at times because people fly down North Ave. It seems like the average speed is near 55 miles per hour,” said Daniel Geraghty, an English teacher at Staples.
However, even though this turn may seem nerve-wracking, statistically, it may not be as dangerous as it is said to be.
According to Captain Samuel Arciola from the Westport Police Department, over the past five and a half years, there were 71 total reported accidents at Staples including the parking lot area and out in front of the school. Only two of those 71 accidents had to do with turning at the exit route and it is unknown whether or not these were even left turns.
Although it may seem frightening, this turn has caused very few accidents. Even though it may come off as dangerous, the statistics suggest that there is more of a chance that you will get in an accident at Staples when parking your car in the parking lot than when turning left onto North Ave.
