Village wins silver award in traffic safety program
The Village of Westbury recently won a Silver Award in AAA Northeast’s Community Traffic Safety Awards Program.
At a luncheon ceremony held on Oct. 5 at the Garden City Hotel, the village was recognized for its efforts to facilitate safe driving, biking and walking. The village also received a special citation for having zero pedestrian fatalities for eight consecutive years.
Increasing safety in the village has been a goal of Gloria Monitto’s for more than three decades. As chairwoman of Westbury’s Public Safety Commission, Monitto, along with fellow board members Vickie Laura and Nicholas M. Grigoraki, and help from Cynthia Brown, executive director at NY Coalition for Transportation Safety, and health educator Marc Haffacker, organizes numerous events for the community. Programs include bicycle rodeos, which give out free helmets and promote bike safety; car fit programs, where senior citizens learn better driving techniques and car-seat checks. Monitto said the group focuses on educating a wide group of people on how to stay safe on the road.
“We try to cover everything—bicycles, cars, senior citizens, kids, the general public,” Monitto said. “The biggest problem in Westbury is traffic, and when we see anything that’s dangerous we go to the mayor and board and say this is a dangerous situation and they act on it.”
