ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County leaders could spend more than $500,000 to pay for safety barriers in front of more than 100 day care centers.
The move is a response to last year's crash that sent a car into a day care center in Orange County, killing Lily Quintus, 4.
Channel 9's Karla Ray spoke with Lily's mother Tuesday. Nicole Quintus told Ray that money should not be a priority over safety.
"The last year has been terrible, and you still wake up every morning and wonder for that one second if it was just a dream," Nicole Quintus said.
The day care where Lily died 13 months ago now has a barrier in front of it. County leaders want any day care centers that they consider at risk, those sitting next to busy roads and intersections, to have protective barricades installed.
A county task force said the accident that killed Lily and sent several other children to the hospital was not a fluke. They said to protect 116 of the county's most vulnerable day care centers, they would like to install barriers over the next two to five years.
Shaquanna Benjamin's day care center on Pine Hills Road is the type of facility that would have barriers installed.
"The traffic goes by extremely fast from both ways," Benjamin said.
Raw: Day care operator on barriers
There is a catch. While the county is looking to spend $500,000, the owners would have to put up around $5,000 of their own money. They would later be reimbursed by the county.
"I don't see a center on this street being able to do that," Benjamin said.
Ray asked Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs if taxpayers should be funding something like the barriers.
"That's what we do with taxes, we protect our most vulnerable, and I think this is a very justified cost," Jacobs said.
Though the barriers are something most people may never need, Nicole Quintus wonders whether something as simple as a barrier might have save her daughter's life.
"We hurt every day, and we think about Lily every day," she said.
County commissioners are expected to approve money for the barriers in July.
Rules for barriers are expected to be in place by October and will mean that any new day cares in at-risk areas will have to install barriers at their own cost.
Channel 9's Karla Ray will have details on the story on Eyewitness News at 5.
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