‘Blood Alley’ Residents Live in Fear of Crashes

Sam Boyles says he enjoys cars. But he doesn’t enjoy the ones that speed down his block and crash into his front yard.

Boyles, a printing-press manufacturer, lives alongside a curve on Sunland Boulevard in Sunland that he and other residents call “Blood Alley.” At least two drivers have been killed and eight people have been injured in accidents there during the past three years, Los Angeles city officials say.

“I’ve lived here three years and there have been six accidents right in front of me,” Boyles, 38, said. “Three cars have gone right through my yard. One of them went through my yard and crashed into the front room next door. I won’t let my children play in front of the house.”

There are five homes lining the curve in the 9600 block of Sunland Boulevard, in the Shadow Hills neighborhood. Los Angeles police say the short stretch of road is one of the more treacherous on Sunland Boulevard, which winds through Shadow Hills and the Sunland-Tujunga area.

Police say westbound traffic passes through an intersection with Wheatland Avenue, then goes downhill and picks up speed just as it hits the curve. No parking is allowed on the street, also encouraging a fast flow of traffic.

Besieged by complaints from families who live on the block, City Councilman Howard Finn proposed this week that the city Department of Street Maintenance install guardrails along the block. He also proposed putting signs near Wheatland Avenue warning westbound drivers that they are approaching the curve.

Council Approves Measures

The City Council approved the safety measures Tuesday. A department official said that the problem has been under study for several months but that there is no timetable yet for installation of the guardrails.

Boyles said that, even with the promise of guardrails, he is not sure he wants his family to live on the block anymore. He and his wife have a 3-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter.

“I’ve been trying to sell my house for about six months now,” he said. “I’m honest about it. I tell any prospective buyer why I want to move. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to sell my house.”

Finn and police officials said they have long regarded the 2 1/2-mile stretch of Sunland Boulevard from the Foothill Freeway to Tuxford Street, which includes Boyles’ block, as a dangerous, winding drag strip. There are few traffic lights through the mountainous area, and drivers tend to drive as much as 20 m.p.h. faster than the speed limit, Finn said.

A motorcycle officer, Jack Evans, was killed on Sunland Boulevard in October, 1983, when his cycle collided with a car as he was pursuing a speeding motorist, Officer Steve Lenker said.

“We’ve always regarded this as a very bad area,” he said. “We regularly patrol it with radar. The road around where the houses are is generally straight, then it curves gently. I guess that catches some people off guard.”

Many guardrails have already been installed along the boulevard to protect drivers from crashing into hillsides or onto vacant lots, Finn said.

“For a while during previous years, it seemed that once a week someone was getting killed on Sunland,” he said. “Drivers would be crashing into light poles. Then we put up poles in front of the light poles to keep people from crashing, and they would crash into those and break them.”

“The police have told me that they named this ‘Blood Alley,’ ” Boyles said, “Before these houses were here, it was an open field and folks would still go fast down the hill and go out of control, ending up on the field. But it doesn’t seem to have gotten any better with the houses here.”

Wes Suggs, 47, an auto mechanic who has lived on the block for four years, said he often hears tires screeching in front of his house in the middle of the night. “It really scares me, but I love the house so much I haven’t really thought about leaving,” he said.

Car Through Wall

Last year, city officials said, a woman driving late at night swerved off the road through Boyles’ front yard and into the front room of his next-door neighbor. No one in the house was injured, but the driver’s nose was broken and her car knocked down a tree in Boyles’ front yard, which cost him $400 to replace, Boyles said.

“My son sleeps in the front room, so we are always scared of something happening,” he said. “That’s why I’ve wanted to move.”

When Boyles first moved into his house, all of the homes were unprotected by fences or concrete pillars. The houses now are fronted by brick pillars and wrought-iron fences, but some of those have been knocked over by the errant traffic.

“I just hope these rails do some good,” Boyles said. “We’ve been wanting them for a long time. It’s bad when you have to live in fear like scared animals.”