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Fishers residents: School buses ‘stuck’ on narrow roads with improperly parked cars

Fishers parking complaints

Improperly parked cars prevent school buses and emergency vehicles from turning onto narrow roads, residents said.

FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — Parking violations in the Brooks Chase housing development sparked safety concerns among residents. Improperly parked cars often prevent school buses and emergency vehicles from turning onto narrow roads, they said.

“We’ve seen it where the buses get stuck,” said Richard Krieg, whose family moved to the neighborhood in 2009. “We’ve seen buses where they haven’t been able to make the turn. It has just become more and more of a problem with people not paying attention to the parking rules.”

A photo taken Monday morning and provided by Krieg shows a school bus with its brake lights on, stopped beside two cars parked illegally near a corner.

Children in the neighborhood are sometimes dropped off at different locations when school buses are unable to reach their regular stops, families told News 8.

Krieg’s 8-year-old daughter had once been left with a stranger at an unfamiliar stop because her bus driver had altered his route upon reaching a narrow road blocked by improperly parked cars, he said.

Although his daughter, then 5 years old, was unharmed, the incident sent his wife into “crisis mode” and highlighted potential safety issues caused by parking violations, Krieg told News 8.

He and his neighbors had unsuccessfully confronted individual drivers known to ignore parking signs, they said.

Residents had also contacted police, public works officials and a local homeowners association with their concerns.

On Monday evening, News 8 crews observed multiple vehicles parked near the intersection of Anthem Avenue and Allegiance Drive in restricted areas marked with “No Parking Here To Corner” signs. No parking tickets were visible on the vehicles.

“I’ve never seen a car ticketed,” said Krieg. “We don’t know who to reach out to anymore.”

Armando Solis, 15, said he had also never seen a parking ticket on an improperly parked vehicle in the neighborhood. 

A black sedan was parked Monday evening in front of his family’s home, next to a red and white “No Parking” sign.”

“This happens a lot here,” Solis said, pointing to the car. “Our bus [driver] had to let us go [at a different location once] because there was a big semi-truck parked right there and [the school bus] couldn’t get through.”

Walking more than half a mile home from alternate bus stops was especially frustrating in the winter, he added.

Some bus drivers had been advised the Brooks Chase development was a “nightmare” to navigate, according to Krieg.

Representatives for the Fishers Police Department and Hamilton Southeastern Schools did not immediately respond to requests for comment from News 8.