PHOENIX — A Phoenix father reached out to our Operations Safe Roads team saying his son's route to school is dangerous.
The nearly 10-minute walk to and from school is filled with cars, work trucks, and buses.
"It's scary how uncaring these people seem to be in a school zone. It's definitely scary and we've had so many close calls," said David De La Rosa, the concerned parent.
De La Rosa and his wife take the uneven route to Madison Richard Simis Elementary School every weekday with their 6-year-old son, Josh, while their older son gets on a bus about halfway.
"Cars will drive within feet, sometimes within inches," said De La Rosa.
ABC15 tagged along with them on Monday to see what they face near 7th Street and Glendale Avenue. Part of their walk doesn't even have sidewalks.
"You would imagine, being so close to a school, there would at least be signs posted on this road...something saying there is no sidewalk," said De La Rosa.
Josh might be young but he knows safety comes first.
"When the cars were kinda fasting up, I kinda wanted to say 'slow down' and like, 'be careful,'" said 6-year-old Josh.
Neighbors told us the most dangerous part of the walk is where a large trash bin sits, as it poses as an additional barrier.
"You kind of find yourself hiding behind it to see when you can cross and go around it and then you try to be in the path of that so nobody can sneak up behind you," said Alicia Medina, who is constantly stressed while walking her son to school.
"You're just trying to get in and out of the school as fast as you can so you don't have to worry anymore," said Medina.
Neighbors reached out to the school in the past and they have now added crossing guards.
"Getting the students home, nice and safely," said one crossing guard.
But the crossing guards are only in front of the school, so that's why De La Rosa decided to contact ABC15 for help.
We got in touch with the City of Phoenix and the Street Transportation Department said there might be a few options, including adding speed humps as part of a neighborhood petition process.
"A lot of them don't even do 25 mph; they do much faster than that," said De La Rosa about drivers passing by.
We also asked the city about the lack of sidewalks and we were told, they are looking into it.