Stop For Jarrid

I am a 4th Generation resident of the small Westchester County city of Rye, New York. My father served the City of Rye for 30 years as a firefighter. My grandfather owned The Rye Garage when I was growing up. My uncle managed Rye Taxi and my great grandfather built one of the three houses my family owns on Midland Avenue in Rye. On April 18th, 2006 our family’s lives changed forever when my son Jarrid was kill [...]I am a 4th Generation resident of the small Westchester County city of Rye, New York. My father served the City of Rye for 30 years as a firefighter. My grandfather owned The Rye Garage when I was growing up. My uncle managed Rye Taxi and my great grandfather built one of the three houses my family owns on Midland Avenue in Rye. On April 18th, 2006 our family’s lives changed forever when my son Jarrid was killed while trying to cross Midland Avenue. Jarrid was riding his bicycle and wanted to join his mother and little sister Alessandra (then 7yrs.old) across the street when he was struck by a van driven by an 82 year old man who didn’t see him in the road. Jarrid fought for his life in the hospital for 10 hours before succumbing to the injuries he sustained. On June 14th of that year - 2 months after the accident - I finally regained the strength to speak in public and went to a Rye City Council meeting to request a Stop Sign and a Crosswalk for the intersection where Jarrid lost his life. Rye’s current Mayor, Steve Otis, publically promised he would do something to Honor Jarrid. It is now almost 4 years later and Mayor Otis and the elected representatives of Rye have done – NOTHING.  Mr. Otis lied to me and used every political smoke screen and mirror he could to pressure me to go away. All this just fueled the fire within me for public safety and, with the help of some very dear friends, I have fought on. I have now undertaken a process of publically exposing every evident danger that Midland Avenue traffic patterns present to children. There are many. So I have written hundreds of emails, been to countless City Council meetings, approached our County Legislatures, made hundreds of requests to the Rye Police Department's Commissioner Connors and Lieutenant Falk, and now, almost 4 years later we are making slow to little progress. On November 3^rd, 2009 Mayor Steve Otis was voted out of office and will be replaced on January 1st, 2010 by Doug French and his team of 3 new council members. This site is dedicated to the memory of Jarrid with the purpose of raising awareness about Rye pedestrian safety - especially children - and to keep the pressure on the elected officials of Rye New York to enact the necessary changes to protect the lives of children - your child, your neighbor’s child, or a stranger’s child. I hope readers here enjoy Jarrid's website and find it interesting and helpful. Please be patient as we make continuous improvements and build sections along the way.