Safer Crosswalks Coming To Site Where Correctional Officer Was Killed
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Preliminary work begins Tuesday on safety improvements at the pedestrian crossing where a Cook County Corrections officer was killed in a hit-and-run accident this summer.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, when Cook County Jail employees make their way from a parking lot on the east side of 29th Street and California Boulevard to the west side of 29th Street and California Avenue, they often have to dodge speeding cars.
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Corrections Officer Nikki Bostic-Jones was killed in July crossing one of the streets.
Now, plans are in the works to make the crossing safer.
"What we're going to do is install concrete pedestrian refuge islands, so on California Avenue, it's going to be a 10-foot-wide median, and on California Boulevard, it's going to be a 6-foot-wide median," said Jennifer Killen of the Cook County Highway Department.
Killen says there will also be high-visibility markings and new pedestrian and speed limit signs.
The $204,000 project is expected to be completed by early November.
Bostic-Jones was on her way across California Avenue to work late on the night July 18, when a van hit her and fled. She later died at Mount Sinai Hospital.
The man police say was the driver of the van – Juan Bello, 57, of the 2900 block of West 25th Street – was charged with reckless homicide and leaving the scene of an accident involving a death.
Prosecutors say Bello had been drinking when he ran over Bostic-Jones.
