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The village and the U.S. Postal Service, reacting to the death of 83-year-old resident Faith Leigh, have reached an agreement that lets certain patrons move their mail boxes to their side of the street.
Leigh was struck by a car and killed on Monday, May 9, while trying to get her mail.
There are no traffic lights or crosswalks near where Leigh, a former art teacher and children’s librarian, lived.
Leigh was also active in a number of local organizations, including the Rockland County Conservation Society.
The U.S. Postal Service has notified the owners of 48 “points of delivery” that they now have the option of relocating their mailboxes, according to Maureen Marion, spokesperson for the service’s Northeast sector.
Those patrons have been notified by mail, Marion said, and will be working with postal officials so that the boxes can be relocated in a way that works for both them and the service.
Meanwhile, Rockland officials are calling on the state Department of Transportation to undertake a safety study of Route 202.
County Legislator Alden H. Wolfe, who lives in the village, and Montebello Mayor Lance N. Millman, and Deputy Mayor Stacy Caridi, have written to Jennifer Clark, the state Department of Transportation’s resident engineer, in the hopes, they said, that the DOT will install traffic and pedestrian signals and make other road improvements on that stretch of Route 202.
In a Facebook post, Wolfe credited Caridi with reaching out to the postal services, saying that her "advocacy resulted in an agreement to allow the residents to move their mailboxes to their side of the street."
According to Wolfe and the others, there have been 17 accidents near the Route 202/Mayer Drive intersection since 2009.
A dozen people have been injured in those accidents, and now one person has been killed, they said.
“A valued member of our community has been lost and it is imperative that we make sure we can do everything in our power to ensure this never happens again,” said Wolfe, the Legislature’s chairman.
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