A pedestrian vehicle crash reported at 4:20 a.m. on Sep. 15 had huge ramifications on traffic on the Merritt, as the stretch between Exit 18 and 32 was shut down for hours; numerous teachers were affected by the delays, showing up to school late. The man who was struck in the accident was pronounced dead. A ParentSquare announcement was shared that morning to address the potential traffic hazards.
“Due to heavy in-town traffic caused by and accident on the Merritt Parkway,” the announcement read, “all buses may be delayed.”
In addition to the traffic in town, teachers commuting from out of town were greatly hindered by the closings, as Westport includes Exit 21 and 22. Some at the school believe the large number of late teachers called for a delayed opening.
“I wasn’t too affected by the delays because my class had a second teacher, however, my class did have to start a little bit later because the main teacher wasn’t there so we [just] did attendance while we waited,” Juliane Palmer ’28 said.
While some believed the late buses and overall traffic in Westport and beyond called for a delayed opening of some sort, many teachers were still able to get to class on time, and if not, were able to arrange for their classes to be taken care of.
“Some teachers were late,” math teacher Cathy Hall said. “But as always, other teachers helped out, pitched in, opened doors and got kids set up.”
