Witness to accident wants Main Street made safer

Helmetta resident pleased with new sidewalks; wants ‘yield’ banner at bend

By lynn K. Barra

Staff Writer

HELMETTA — The new sidewalks being laid down in the borough have brought back old memories for one resident, who wants to see more done to improve the safety of pedestrians along Main Street.

"In 1995, I created a group after a lifetime (Helmetta) resident was killed," said Janice Mondoker, who witnessed the death of George Jamison. "He was walking to the general store at night in the winter. A white car drove down Main Street and killed him."

According to Mondoker, Jamison, an elderly man who walked with a cane, was attempting to cross Main Street to get to Bo’s General Store when he was hit by a driver who fled the scene. Jamison died instantly, Mondoker said. A second eyewitness was able to provide a partial license plate number to police, who later located the driver.

Mondoker said she will never be able to erase the vision of the man being hit by the car or the harrowing scene that was created after the accident.

Jamison was attempting to walk across Main Street along a bend in the road that Mondoker claims is extremely dangerous because drivers going either north or south on Main Street have difficulty seeing pedestrians.

"His body was thrown to the other side of the street," Mondoker said. "It’s pitch black at that bend. The man driving the car told police (when they located him) that he didn’t know he hit the guy. He was fined and his license was taken away."

"It was very disturbing," Mondoker said. "It was a life-changing experience."

Witnessing the man’s death motivated Mondoker to become politically active in the borough. After the car accident, she said she and a handful of local residents formed a group to try to improve safety conditions for pedestrians at the location of the accident.

"I got involved in politics after that," said Mondoker, who is currently the borough’s Democratic Party chairwoman. "I wanted to do something about this. The police director at the time said there was nothing they could do (to improve safety conditions)."

In addition to becoming the chair of the Democratic Party, Mondoker enlisted the help of Deanne Naparano, who successfully ran for Borough Council in 1996.

Naparano served until 2000, and according to Mondoker did what she could to improve safety conditions on Main Street.

"When you get on council, part of the job is to run the day-to-day business of the borough," Mondoker said. "Naparano tried to get the county to put sidewalks in" on Main Street, which is a county-owned road.

"She was able to get crosswalk lines put in by the county, but even that was difficult. It took her close to two years to get that done."

Although Naparano did not win a second term, Mondoker was not discouraged. While still in office, Naparano and Mondoker were able to convince a local AAA agency to donate a giant yellow banner with the phrase reading, "Yield to pedestrians." The goal of these two women was to have the banner displayed on two telephone poles located on either side of the bend on Main Street. To this day, Mondoker said, the banner has never been displayed.

"The previous administration never hung the banner up," Mondoker said. "They said no one was available to do it, and then they said they couldn’t hang it up because of insurance reasons. It was one excuse after the next."

With the new construction of sidewalks paid for through two state grants, Mondoker, who frequently attends council meetings, said she wants to approach the new council about displaying the banner. Another goal, she said, is the installation of a blinking light at the location where Jamison was killed.

"When there was just a dirt path (downtown), people would walk down the street, and it was a safety issue then," Mondoker said about the downtown revitalization program, which includes construction of sidewalks in only a section of the borough. Grant money has not yet been secured by the council to continue to build sidewalks along the entire length of Main Street, or along the opposite side.

"The foot traffic has tripled since the sidewalks have started to be built. We need to put something there (at the bend) to make drivers aware all the time that people are crossing the street," she said.