Originally Posted by
debade
I wouldn't have responded except for the comment "look and do not cross the road if there is a car coming which has not yet stopped for you". Placing the responsibility so squarely on a child, who does have some responsibility, is to narrow of a view.
Your argument is with reality then.
The fact is that the world is not safe for children who do not look before crossing the street to cross streets without supervision.
There's a reason there's a ritual to family walks with young children - you stop, link up hands, look, mention the cars you see, and then when the adults say it is safe, you cross as a group. Kids only get to do that physically on their own after literally years of doing it hand in hand with an adult, and they only get to do it unaccompanied after years more of demonstrating reliability while the adults watch.
As for your left turn comment, while that can indeed be an issue in other circumstances (in this case someone walking east or west and so crossing the street being turned into), the boy was reportedly heading north to the pond, so he would not have been struck because of the left turn, but rather because he was crossing the road the driver was coming from - a car the law would appear to have required the pedestrian to yield to.
Putting in the third stop sign, adding an east-west crosswalk and the absent curb cuts to support crossing north south and painting that too are all likely reasonable ideas with relatively few downsides.
But one still has to look for traffic before crossing the street - and to remember that in most US states, cyclists don't get priority at crosswalks anyway.