Parents of Leawood elementary school children — some of whom had been recently hit by cars — asked city councilmembers for better pedestrian protections during an emotionally intense public comment section of the city council’s Monday meeting.
Five parents, including the mother of a 10-year-old boy recently killed in a crash while riding his e-scooter, urged councilmembers to make more effective signage, pedestrian barriers and slower speed limits an immediate priority, especially in the north Leawood area around Corinth and Brookwood elementary schools.
“This is not about kids making a mistake,” said Kari Duede, “This is about the infrastructure we are asking children to navigate.”
“Our streets should be designed so one slip doesn’t equal a tragedy,” she continued.
Leawood Police Chief Brad Robbins confirmed in an email to the Post on Tuesday morning that the city investigated 15 crashes in the past five years on city streets that involved pedestrians and people riding scooters or e-scooters.
Duede’s son Adam, 8, was hit Oct. 9, as he was riding his bike on the 83rd Street sidewalk on the way to school, she said. He momentarily lost control of the bike, wobbled out onto the roadway and was hit by a Ford F150, she said. Although his bike was destroyed and he went to the hospital in an ambulance, she said the family was “incredibly lucky” that it wasn’t worse.
Lauren Kopfer also had concerns about the 83rd Street traffic. She said her son James, a student at Corinth, was hit by a car on that street in 2021 as he crossed from the south to the north side of the street. Kopfer said she and other parents petitioned for a crosswalk at 83rd Street and Wenonga Road three years ago and are still waiting for one to be installed.
Below is a video recording of the meeting. Public comments from speakers about street safety begin at 6:23.
Some of the speakers fought to keep their voices steady as they told their stories. Monica Ommert, whose 10-year-old son Duke died after the e-scooter he was riding on Lee Boulevard was hit by a car Oct. 13, held up a large portrait of him while describing that day.
Duke and his neighborhood friends had been playing a scavenger hunt trading game called “Bigger or Better” that afternoon. His mother said she talked to him via his smart watch and told him to be home by 6 p.m. He told her he’d collected three Nerf guns and a big gray basket in the game, she said.
As she headed toward home on Lee Boulevard, Monica Ommert said she became concerned about the number of ambulances along the route he should have been traveling. Reality hit when she pulled over and saw her son’s helmet, shoe and the gray basket on the ground, as medics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him.
Duke was trying to get across to a side of the street that had a sidewalk to ride on, she said. If there had been sidewalks on both sides, the accident might not have happened, she said. She didn’t blame the driver.
Ommert and other parents said children should have a safer environment to get out in the neighborhood and away from screens. Ommert described Duke as outdoor loving and adventurous.
“These boys need their autonomy. They need their independence,” she said.
“It feels scary so many kids are getting hit by cars”
Ten-year-old Archie Maugans, a friend of Duke’s, also spoke to the city council, saying he wanted to honor his friend from pre-kindergarten days.
“All he was doing was playing with friends like 10-year-olds are supposed to do,” he said. “It feels scary so many kids are getting hit by cars.”
The parents said the city needs a much more robust answer to traffic dangers than the flashing lights it now has. Jaclyn Penn suggested pedestrian tunnels at key crossings, bike safety education and lower speed limits on certain streets. Lee Boulevard has a 35-mph limit that causes Google Maps to route more traffic there, she said.
She also said the city should look into colorful bike lanes, built within the existing width of the road and hardened rubber barriers that slow traffic down for squarer turns.
Duede said the city should do a formal analysis of crash patterns, particularly in the older part of Leawood north of Interstate 435.
Later in the meeting, Councilmember Chuck Sipple, who is on the city’s bike/walk committee, said the committee members intend to examine all aspects of the rules for helmets and where bikes and scooters can be ridden.
“It’s hard to say what we need to do first,” he said.
The committee will have to take care that Leawood’s rules are in sync with neighboring cities to avoid confusion, Sipple added.
“We might want to do these things really quickly but that’s probably not the right way,” he said. “So we’re going to do it very deliberately with the city attorney and the police department and public works and get feedback from all the neighbors.”
