Lynn crossing guard cautions drivers after Boston guard is critically injured

LYNN – The woman with the cellular telephone plastered to one ear let her car slide into the crosswalk outside the Cobbet School before Louis Sport waved his “stop” sign at her.
“People don’t pay attention,” Sport said as he directed another cluster of students and parents across busy Franklin Street.
Sport works as a crossing guard outside Cobbet weekdays from 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. The retired bus driver is no stranger to the occasional, sometimes frequent, lack of courtesy and attentiveness on the part of drivers and pedestrians.
He was saddened, but not surprised, to hear that a Boston crossing guard was critically injured Tuesday in Boston by an 86-year-old driver who faces charges and has had his license revoked.
“It seems to me some people take convenience, not child safety, into consideration.”
The driver stated in a published report that he did not see crossing guard Marie Conley. After starting work as a crossing guard in January 2007, Sport made sure drivers could see him by cracking down on parking outside Cobbet.
“I had to establish my authority,” he said.
He reordered the school bus parking configuration in front of the school and educated parents about parking limitations along Franklin.
His pet peeves are parents who do not use the crosswalk to escort their children across Franklin and, you guessed it, drivers speeding or talking on the phone.
Sport’s job is a fine balance between guiding parents and children across Franklin and keeping traffic flowing on one of Lynn’s main cross town streets. “I try to wait for a group to gather before I cross people. Rainy days are an adventure. You have to really be on your toes,” he said.
His suggestions to drivers traveling through school zones include: obey the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit, don’t stop inside the crosswalk and “remember – children don’t pay attention.”