By Heidi Sanders
hsanders@kentreporter.com

Getting to school will soon become safer for students and their families at Carriage Crest Elementary.

The King County Department of Transportation last week installed two flashing speed limit signs in the school zone, just north and south of the Kent School District elementary, 18235 140th Ave. SE in Renton, which is between Southeast 192nd Street and Southeast Petrovitsky Road near Fairwood.

The signs, which will flash when children are present to warn motorist of the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit, should be operational in the next couple of weeks, said Jeff Switzer, spokesman for the King County Department of Transportation.

Previously the school zone was marked with smaller signs indicating the school zone speed limit, but were not equipped with flashing lights. The speed limit on the five-lane road is 40 miles per hour when students aren’t present.

Carriage Crest Principal Susanne Wick, who has been at the school for 13 years, said cars speeding past the school has always been a problem but has become more of a concern over the past few years as more students have started walking to school along 140th.

“With the increase of traffic on the road it has become more apparent that there is a problem,” Wick said.

Wick said she and parents had been talking to the county about the need for the signs for more than a year, and Carriage Crest was 13th on the county’s list to get the signage.

Frode Langelo, a parent who became aware of the need for the signs when his children started attending Carriage Crest last year, started a GoFundMe account last month to raise money for the flashing signs.

Last week, the county’s transportation department announced it would install and cover the cost of the signs.

Switzer said a “well-intentioned staff member” had suggested the fundraising to the parents, but that isn’t an approach the department takes.

“When we become aware yesterday (Oct. 8) of this fundraising, we decided to step in to try to get school zone signs installed,” Switzer said.

The signs cost about $12,000, Switzer said.

Langelo is pleased the county stepped in.

“This is just wonderful,” he said. “We are just so happy, all of us parents who have been working on it.”

Any donations made to the GoFundMe account will be refunded, Langelo said.

He hopes drivers will slow down when they see the flashing signs.

“A lot of people I have talked to have been driving there for years and years,” he said. “They didn’t even know the (old) signs were there.”