Reflecter Belts Aid Safety in Lakewood
Lakewood will be safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, thanks to the donation of 1,000 reflector belts by the Rothenberg Law Firm, with offices in New York, Philadelphia, Cherry Hill, Hackensack and Lakewood.
“The Rothenberg family had the vision and foresight to say we want to help out Lakewood in a meaningful way. We want to help out by making the town safer,” Mayor Menashe Miller said, who presented a plaque to the family during a recent Township Committee meeting.
Miller said the family of lawyers contacted Yehuda Abraham, Lakewood’s director of purchasing who has been at the forefront of safety in town after being struck by a vehicle. The Rothenbergs decided they could make a difference by donating the reflector belts.
“We’ve had a pedestrian safety program for quite some time,” Miller said, noting that former Ocean County Traffic Safety Engineer Roden Lightbody provided the township with the first reflector belts a number of years ago. “The program took off in the sense of giving people reflector belts and having them wear them; however, as time goes on, the reflector belts may have been lost or misplaced.”
Miller said that a large segment of the population wears dark clothing, making it difficult for motorists to see people who walk at dusk or during the evening.
Allen L. Rothenberg, who founded the law firm in 1969, said the safety campaign is close to his family’s hearts. “I’ve been handling personal injury cases for decades, involving catastrophic injuries, involving loss of limbs and loss of lives. We recover a lot of money, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients, and I’ve never seen one client, not one client who wouldn’t take every single cent that they’ve gotten in a settlement or in a verdict, and give it right back if they could be restored to the condition they were before,” he said.
Rothenberg, his wife Barbara and six of their eight children, Harry, Marc, Beth, Ross, Scott, and Melissa, are all lawyers with the firm. “We hope these reflector belts will stop people from being injured,” said Rothenberg, whose daughter Beth Rothenberg Halperin, her husband Rabbi Dov Halperin, and their eight children live in Lakewood.
“Lakewood is a growing and vibrant community with many young people and many children, but the danger is there on the highways. Before our Sabbath many, many people are hurrying to get to the Synagogue before sundown so we need to get the word out to slow down,” he said.
Abraham said he is looking for other large companies to follow the example of the Rothenberg Law Firm so additional belts can be purchased to help keep the accident statistics down.
“It is my hope that these reflectors will be an incentive to further promote this important safety campaign throughout Lakewood,” Miller said.
Anyone who would like a reflector belt or would like to donate additional reflector belts should email Yehuda Abraham yabraham@lakewoodnj.gov .