By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Safety upgrades for the accident-prone intersection of Morningside Drive South and Hillandale Road were approved Wednesday by the Board of Selectwomen after hearing pleas from two residents — including one who previously sat at their table.

“I have unfortunately borne witness to countless near accidents, and three of those accidents have catapulted cars through my lawn,” said Jenny Perlman, whose house stands at one corner of the intersection. “People assume it’s a four-way stop.” 

The most frightening recent accident involved a car with five children in it, she said, who fortunately avoided serious injuries.

Former First Selectman Jim Marpe, who lives about 300 feet from the intersection, agreed. 

“I encourage you to approve this,” he told the selectwomen. “Forever, there’s that doubt when you get to that intersection … whether people will be coming, thinking, you will stop or not?”  

The safety measures will include installing stop signs on Morningside Drive South, flashing warning lights and signs letting motorists know that stop signs are ahead to make the intersection a four-way stop, police Cpl. Al D’Amura told the Town Hall meeting.

Members of the town’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Task Force, including police, an engineer from the Department of Public Works and others studied the intersection after the task force received numerous complaints about safety problems there, D’Amura said.

The number of accidents at the intersection has increased in the last few years, he said, with three reported last year, two in 2023, and one the previous year. 

One of the reasons upgraded safety measures are needed, D’Amura added, is that a project to build new sidewalks along Morningside Drive, from Post Road East to Hillandale Road, passing Greens Farms Elementary School, has led to more pedestrians crossing the intersection, particularly children walking to school.

There is also traffic traveling on the road to and from the Greens Farms Railroad Station, Perlman said. “People automatically assume it’s a four-way stop,” she said of the site.

Perlman thanked the selectwomen for supporting the intersection upgrade.

Marpe suggested that police enforcement at the intersection be stepped up after the new stop signs and other traffic monitors are installed. Additional enforcement initially will be needed, he said, “because people who have traveled there without stopping [in the past], will not realize they’re coming to a stop sign.”

The project was approved unanimously by the board.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.