Snow piled up along area streets is forcing children to walk in the street to meet their school bus in some neighborhoods without sidewalks or where sidewalks have not been cleared.
Heavy snow cleared from streets during the region’s recent storms has compressed and frozen, creating barriers that are difficult for small children especially to climb or get around.
A break in the snow, temperatures rising into the upper 30s and 40s, and rain forecast over the next week should melt most of the current snow.
But snowpack is an issue in the Erie region most winters.
A Millcreek mom concerned about her young son’s safety has raised the issue with the Millcreek Township School District and asked that routes be altered or other changes made when snow is packed high along streets.
‘Not the only family with this concern’
Crystal Goss, of Perkins Street in Millcreek, said that her six-year-old son, a first-grader at Chestnut Hill Elementary, generally walks in the grass on neighbors’ property, but with heavy snow, has to walk in the street to get to his bus stop on West Gore Road, and then wait in the street at the intersection.