Pinecrest resident Phyllis Lambert is urging local authorities to install a traffic light at a Bluffton Parkway intersection near two schools.
Lambert says the light is needed where Crossings Boulevard and Masters Way meet the parkway. School buses cross the busy, four-lane highway four times a day as they take children to and from H.E. McCracken Middle School and Bluffton Elementary School.
“By the grace of God, a school bus hasn’t been hit. Only by the grace of God,” Lambert told Bluffton Town Council this week.
Lambert has seen it many times: A school bus waiting on either side of the intersection to cross is forced to floor it across four lanes of traffic. She says these crossings have become dicier as traffic on Bluffton Parkway increases.
Lambert is retired, with grown children. She said her only interest here is for the safety of students and motorists. She even offered to gather signatures to show public support for the new light.
Because Bluffton Parkway is a county road, town officials can’t simply go out and install a new light even if they wanted to. Town staff promised Tuesday to discuss the traffic light request with their Beaufort County counterparts.
Lambert plans to continue making the case for a new light, and says she’ll be at Bluffton’s May council meeting to get an update from town staff.