The school board has come up with a temporary solution to Middleton High School students jaywalking across Hillsborough Avenue.
A shuttle bus will pick students who live in the Meridian Point Apartment complex on the north side of Hillsborough Avenue up each way until the end of the year.
The shuttle service is in response to concerns about dangerous walking conditions for students crossing Hillsborough Avenue to go to school.
The service will cost $8,000 until the end of the year. Plans for next year are undetermined.
According to our partners at the Tampa Bay Times, 125 new lights will also be installed along Hillsborough Avenue between Nebraska and 50th Street. The Times reports that the new lights will use LED technology to produce a whiter and brighter light.
The upgrades are in addition to a new crosswalk and traffic light.
Transportation officials announced the changes this week, three weeks after two teenage sisters were hit while walking to Middleton High School. Norma Velasquez-Cabrera, 15, later died from her injuries.
In 2011, another Middleton High School student was hit and killed while trying to cross Hillsborough Avenue in the same area. Investigators said the driver did not see 15-year-old Shenika Davis.
Transportation officials say more than a quarter of the roadway's pedestrian- and bicycle-related accidents took place in the dark.