PANAMA CITY — In view of the fire engine red sign that reads, “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here,” a silver compact car raced west on Eighth Street on Saturday. Tina Alliston estimated it was traveling more than 55 mph.
“I hope it makes somebody think,” Alliston said of the sign she put in her yard five days ago.
The sign is just the latest of the Allistons attempts to convince motorists to slow down on both Eighth Street and Oak Avenue. They have the house on the southwest corner of the intersection and their kids, Noah, 8, and Judson, 2, live there.
Mom has forbidden the boys from playing in the front yard because of traffic. Alliston was struck by the story of 2-year-old Wesley Burnham, who was killed by a vehicle last month near his home in Panama City Beach.
“You try to be as careful as possible, but 2-year-olds can get out,” Alliston said. “They’re sneaky.”
The speed limit on Eighth is 35 mph. The speed limit on Oak is 25 mph, with a sign at the southern edge of the Allistons’ property.
Tina Alliston’s worst experience was a speeder who veered off Eighth and killed one of the family’s dachshund dogs at the edge of her lawn last summer. The driver did not stop.
Recently, her husband Chris Alliston went out in the middle of the road to stop a Ford F-250 pickup truck speeding on Oak.
“He’s not as user-friendly as I am,” Tina Alliston said. “He’s tossed flip flops at them.”
While visiting relatives in Georgia, she noticed red “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” signs all over the well-to-do neighborhood. A resident gave her a sign to use.
In the past four years, the family has called police so many times that she has lost count.
Police have responded with patrol cars parked on the north side of Oak to try to catch speeders on Eighth. They also have also placed their trailer equipped with a digital speed display.
“We put the trailer out there, we put patrol cars out there, the traffic is going to slow down,” Panama City Police Public Information Officer Richard Thore said. “As soon as we leave, it’s going to speed up.”
The Allistons have suggested placing speed bumps on either Eighth or Oak, but the city has dismissed those pleas.
They understand that they are the only family in the immediate neighborhood with young children. However, Tina Alliston believes, after 14 years as an emergency room nurse, that a collision with either one of her children would be fatal.