A Lincoln Middle School student narrowly escaped serious injury after being hit by a car while walking across North First on Friday morning. The accident prompted Gary Rose, owner of Abilene Muffler and Break Discount Center, to complain pedestrian-vehicle accidents wouldn't happen if the tunnel under the railroad tracks at North and South First Streets and Grape Street remained open.
People fly through here all the time.
If the tunnel would have been open, it wouldn't have happened. Rose said he warned city crews when they fenced off the tunnel two years ago that it created a problem for students wanting to cross the street to get to and from Lincoln. David Polnick, the deputy superintendent for business and finance, said the tunnel was blocked off at the school district's request because it posed a danger. We don't want the kids walking underneath there because we don't feel it's safe. Students living north of the railroad tracks attended Franklin Middle School before boundary changes two years ago made Lincoln a feeder school for Valley View Elementary, he said.