San Diego : Letters Prompt Crossing Study

Swayed by nearly 3,000 letters, a City Council committee voted Monday to seek a permanent solution to the hazards at a Southeast San Diego intersection where seven people have been killed in five years.

The area near the intersection at 42nd and Market streets, between Interstates 15 and 805, has also been the site of 17 other accidents involving injuries, according to Councilman William Jones.

The Transportation and Land Use Committee, headed by Councilman Uvaldo Martinez, voted to conduct a one-month study aimed at finding a solution to the hazard.

One of those attending the Monday meeting was broadcaster Willie Morrow, whose appeal over radio station XHRM-FM resulted in a flood of letters to Jones’ City Council office demanding that traffic lights be installed in the area, which is in Jones’ district.

Because of the lack of traffic signals or stop signs on that stretch of Market Street, Morrow told the committee, “pedestrians walk out in front of cars . . . and the cars don’t have an opportunity to react.”

Morrow’s radio appeal was prompted by the death of a 39-year-old woman hit by a car the day after Christmas. Morrow said his concern over dangers in the area began with the 1984 death of a child killed while trying to cross the street.

Jones said additional traffic police are patroling the area while a solution is studied.