Browse
Log in / Register
Share
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — Updated May 9, 2026 — A James Simons Montessori student was struck by a car while walking to school Friday morning, May 8, and parents in Charleston's North Central neighborhood are renewing a years-long push for pedestrian safety upgrades around two public schools.
The student suffered minor injuries, according to parents, but the crash has landed with heavy emotional impact in a community where many children still walk, bike or skateboard to school — and where moms and dads have privately dreaded this exact scenario.
"This is the kind of thing we've been worried would happen," said Jana Nelson, a James Simons parent. "We're very privileged to live in a place where you can actually walk to school. It's one of the few places in America where that's still true. But the streets don't feel safe enough for it."
Nelson said she grew up walking to school and wants her daughter to have the same kind of childhood. Instead, she trails her fifth-grader on the route, heart pounding on heavy traffic mornings.
"I've had too many near misses," Nelson said. "I walk behind her and my heart's pounding hard, frequently. It makes me feel devastated. It's a reminder that it's just a matter of time."
What makes it harder, she said, is that her daughter does everything right — waits for the walk signal, looks both ways, stays in the crosswalk. And that, Nelson said, is exactly the point parents keep trying to make.
"Your child can do everything right, and it can still happen to them," Nelson said. "It doesn't always have to be your fault for something bad to happen. I've had nightmares about my daughter being hit by a car — and that's not superstition. I worry about her safety during the day. It's one of the only things about Charleston that truly scares me."
Parents who send children to James Simons Montessori and Charleston Charter School for Math and Science have compiled the same list of complaints for years: uneven crosswalks that are hard to navigate on foot or on a bike, a speed limit they consider too high for a school area, missing stop signs at some corners, and no traffic signals at the busiest crossing near the campuses.
The problem corner sits at an angle rather than a clean grid, and it carries more than school traffic. Commuters heading downtown pass through every morning. A nearby Food Lion draws shoppers. A coffee shop now serves early risers. All of that activity converges at the same time children are arriving.
Sean Coughlin, a James Simons parent of four, said the neighborhood was built for walking and biking, but the streets don't always deliver on that promise.
"It's so walkable and bikeable — except that it's not," Coughlin said. "And everybody who lives here knows what I'm talking about."
Coughlin said his two older sons walked to school on their own almost every day last year, and he loved that independence for them. But his own years of riding in Charleston have shown how quickly a close call can turn into a crash.
"I've ridden my bike in Charleston for over ten years. My kids ride their bikes everywhere. We walk everywhere. We've had dozens of close calls — too many to count," he said. "So it very easily could have been any of our kids."
Coughlin doesn't necessarily think conditions have gotten worse over time. "I don't know that it's gotten worse. I just think it's been bad for a long time. But there's a big opportunity to change things."
District 4 City Councilman Aaron Polkey knows the area on a personal level — he grew up about half a mile from the angled intersection parents describe as ground zero. He said the geometry of the corner, combined with commuter and school traffic, makes it a genuine hazard.
"This intersection has always been tricky," Polkey said. "But with all the commuter traffic, the school, the restaurant now serving coffee in the morning, the Food Lion — we really need traffic control here."
Polkey's prescription starts with lower-cost fixes: better signage, more pedestrian lighting, and volunteers stationed at crossings during arrival and dismissal times. But he said the intersection ultimately needs a traffic signal.
"I think the first thing we have to do is improve signage and improve pedestrian lighting," he said. "But ultimately, this intersection deserves a traffic light — one where people can press a button, cross safely, and where drivers can make left turns in an intersection that isn't aligned the way most intersections are."
He also pointed to the broader tension on the Peninsula, which must serve its residents and the thousands who commute into the city for work.
"The peninsula has to strike a balance between those who live here and those who work here, and we need both," Polkey said. "But that balance can't come at the expense of a child's safety."
Friday's crash, he said, was painful precisely because it matched the warnings parents had already issued.
"I'm heartbroken to hear that a young person got hit by a car here," he said. "But I'm even more heartbroken that it wasn't a surprise."
Permanent fixes won't happen overnight. Polkey said the city must coordinate with the county and state, commission studies, and work through the appropriate boards. That timeline, he said, is exactly why urgency matters.
"It's complicated — you have to get the state involved, the county involved, you need studies, you have to get on a board," he said. "But the one thing we don't want to have happen is to lose a young person's life while we're going through a process that we know we need to go through."
While that longer process plays out, parents and Polkey are organizing an interim response: volunteer crossing guards at the busiest intersections near the schools. Polkey and James Simons parents are already signing up.
There is also a budget battle in motion. Transportation advocates are pushing a $1 million line item in the city budget dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian improvements — funding that could help pay for the kind of infrastructure North Central families have requested for years.
The push for safer streets reaches well beyond North Central. South Carolina has repeatedly ranked among the most dangerous states in the nation for pedestrians, according to Smart Growth America's annual "Dangerous by Design" report, which measures pedestrian fatalities against walking rates. Parents here say the state-level statistics match what they watch from their front porches on every school morning.
City leaders are also planning a public meeting in the coming weeks so residents can weigh in on pedestrian and bicycle safety. Parents say they intend to come in force and bring specific proposals with them.
For Nelson, the campaign is about protecting the way of life that drew her family to the Peninsula.
"It's almost seeming like a never-winning battle just to try to maintain what we've come to love," she said. "Walking to school should be one of the best parts of a child's day — not the scariest."
Coughlin said the solution will require participation from everyone who uses the streets, not just parents and city staff.
"Everybody has a part to play — drivers, pedestrians, bicycle riders, local government," he said. "We can all do something right now to make things safer."
Polkey closed with a direct message to North Central families: their frustration is not a problem to manage, but a directive to move faster.
"There's no finger-pointing that's going to make someone who's worried about the safety of their kid feel any better about it," he said. "So what we have to do as elected officials is understand and respect that frustration and pick up the pace to make sure the change occurs that people are rightfully demanding."
