HIGHLANDS NEWS-SUN Thursday, December 26, 2019
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
HIGHLANDS NEWS-SUN Thursday, December 26, 2019 VOL. 100 | NO. 360 | $1.00 YOUR HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1919 An Edition Of The Sun Fines from texting while driving starts Wednesday By KIM LEATHERMAN Florida Ban on Texting the law to the letter. first offense is considered STAFF WRITER While Driving Law “People have had plen- a non-moving violation was signed into law by ty of time,” Sebring Police that carries a $116 fine SEBRING — Don’t Governor Ron DeSantis Department’s Sgt. Mike with no points. The even think about texting and it took effect July 1. Cutolo said. “They’re second offense within if you’re driving. Driving Law enforcement officers aware they shouldn’t be five years is considered a and texting is always can pull over a driver who texting and driving. They moving violation; the fine dangerous, some even is texting as a primary know they are swerving. is $166. Court fees could pay with their lives. offense. Previously, LEO There have been signs put accrue if the citation is Lawmakers decided had to perform a traffic up and it’s been on the contested and the judge hitting people in their stop for another reason. FILE PHOTO news and social media.” upholds the citation. wallets might curb the October to Jan. 1 was Cutolo said it is “This law improves distracting habit. As of considered a time for Motorists caught on the cell phone in a school or construction ultimately the LEO’s driver safety,” Cutolo said. Jan. 1, fines and possibly educating motorists on zone can be pulled over as a main offense. Citations can be discretion on whether to “It cuts down on property points on a license may the new law. That grace steep. give a citation or warning. do the trick. period is over. Local law enforcement said they will be enforcing In Highlands County, the TEXT | 4A Problem intersections getting notice COURTESY PHOTO Senior Hassan Javed, left, developed a student mentoring program at Avon Park High School. APHS senior develops student mentoring program Accepted to Ivy League university By MARC VALERO FILE PHOTO STAFF WRITER An interested party, at left, photographs a black 2018 Ford Crew-cab pickup that got hit by a dark orange 2015 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited on AVON PARK — Senior Hassan Javed, May 7 on U.S. 27 southbound at Lake Josephine Drive. County Commissioner Arlene Tuck has asked County Engineer Clinton Howerton Jr. to ask who is one the first two students to the Florida Department of Transportation about safety improvements at the site, including a traffic light. graduate with an AP Capstone Diploma at Avon Park High, started a successful student mentoring program and has been accepted to FDOT policy: Must meet warrants for signals Columbia University. Avon Park High Advanced By PHIL ATTINGER Academic Diploma STAFF WRITER Program Coordinator Michael Scofield said SEBRING — Dr. Valerie Moulds Hassan has participated of Eye Specialists of Central Florida JAVED in a variety of summer remembers nearly dying as she left programs that set him work. apart from his peers within On Dec. 7, 2015, she saw a the county. One of those programs was at semi-trailer in the outside north- and hosted by Princeton University. bound lane of U.S. 27, far enough “You just don’t have students these days away for her to cross from Whisper that put other people ahead of them- Circle. She didn’t see the speeding selves the way he has done,” Scofield car in the inside lane, hidden by the said. “He saw a need in our community, a truck. gap, and he wanted to fill that gap.” She didn’t have time to cross or He also noted that not many students back up, so she turned left into the from Highlands County are accepted at middle lane, let them fly past her, an Ivy League university. then “fishtailed” into the median. Principal Danielle Erwin said Hassan “I felt my car shudder as the semi spoke to her in February 2018 about missed me by what had to be inches,” creating a mentoring program as part of a Moulds said. project for an academic program he was She said staff at the clinic have PHIL ATTINGER/STAFF in. witnessed several wrecks at that spot: He was aware of the district’s mento- A median crossover without a traffic Median crossovers on U.S. 27 have hosted hundreds of wrecks, including this one on July 10 in ring program, but Hassan proposed a signal serving Whisper Circle and an the southbound lanes across from Whisper Circle. The dark red Ford Fusion at left tangled with program where students would serve as access drive to Frontage Road. a silver Honda sedan and red Jeep Wrangler while the tan Lincoln MKS sedan at right wrecked mentors to help guide younger students, People leaving the eye clinic or the with a silver Nissan Rogue. No serious injuries were reported, but those who use the crossing she said. Ninth grade is a big change for mobile home community of Whisper frequently want a traffic signal. students where they have some freedoms, Lake have had wrecks or close calls. but also the stresses and demands that Cars hit each other, as in a five-car offered to pay for the signal, that is at Lake Josephine Drive, recent- they didn’t have in the lower grades. smash-up on July 10 of this year, or unless or until fatalities hit a high ly brought up by Commissioner Erwin said she met every week with they run off the road to avoid anoth- number then there won’t be a traffic Arlene Tuck to the Board of County Hassan, who served as the student liaison er car, as on Dec. 11. signal at the Whisper Circle inter- Commission. Tuck said she saw a for the school’s Positive Behavioral Now, AdventHealth Sebring is section. She and her staff don’t want school bus waiting for heavy traffic Interventions and Supports committee, building a cancer center across their patients or themselves becom- to clear in order to pull out from where he provides input on initiatives Whisper Circle from the eye clinic. ing statistics. Lake Josephine Drive. The site has a and rewards for that program. Hassan is Moulds and members of her staff Fatalities do come into play, but caution light, but that doesn’t slow also on the Superintendent’s Council. told the Highlands News-Sun they other factors do, too. speeding, she said. Hassan created the Avon Park High fear more wrecks — fatal ones. According to the department’s “Cars do go by [there] pretty fast,” School mentoring program called Red The Florida Department of Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Tuck said. Devil Buddies where successful high Transportation, under policy, must Devices, a highway intersection Cars crossing the highway must school students mentor and support their conduct a warrant study on an in- needs to have more than 105 vehicles traverse four lanes and a wide peers in an effort to positively impact the tersection to see if a light is needed. pass through the side streets during median, she said, with a curve to the school and community. Currently, at this point, it’s not. the busiest eight hours of the day to west and a hill to the east. She asked With input from guidance counselors, Residents and politicians fought warrant a traffic light. County Engineer Clinton Howerton deans, the graduation coach and ad- for years to get traffic lights at U.S. Also, the manual states, traffic Jr. to ask FDOT about a traffic light ministration, Hassan developed training 27 and Shop 16 Road in Avon Park, waiting to enter the highway would there. modules for the mentoring program. several years after the Walmart need to have an excessive delay — “It depends on how many wrecks Hassan said some students in ninth Supercenter opened, and finally got defined as 60 seconds or more. are there,” Tuck said. “What con- and 10th grade need additional support, one in 2018. Part of the change in- In addition, the manual also cerned me was the school bus: His while some juniors and seniors are ex- cluded closing the full median cross- requires that an intersection have at having to wait and wait and wait.” celling really well. The older students, he over between the Murphy gas station least five “angle crashes” each year, Howerton told the Highlands said, have learned how high school works and a Shell Oil station at U.S. 27 and meaning those where cars cross each News-Sun last week that FDOT has and how to navigate their courses. West Palmetto Street. FDOT made others’ paths. Although the site has looked at U.S. 27 at Lake Josephine “Miss Erwin and I developed this idea that a left-turn, only for northbound had crashes, FDOT would have to Road in the last year and determined that maybe if we put these two groups and southbound highway traffic. study it to confirm crash data, delays traffic counts and accident data don’t Moulds said FDOT has told the or vehicle counts. MENTOR | 4A owner of the clinic, who she said Another problem site on U.S. 27 POLICY | 4A Classifieds ......................B4-7 Good morning To Sports ............................ B1 ....................... A6 Comics ................. A7-8, B8-9 Viewpoints TV Listings ....................... A9 .........................A10 Vicky Kellner Lottery ........................... B2 Weather facebook.com/ twitter.com/ Thanks for reading! newssun.com newssun TheNewsSun A2 | HIGHLANDS NEWS-SUN | December 26, 2019 www.highlandsnewssun.com 5 THINGS That Will Make You SMARTER SHS Choir aiming for another 1.