Signals, Guardrails : Glendale Plans Safety Measures at Site of 4 Deaths

Glendale city officials, despite contending that an accident in which four pedestrians were killed by a suspected drunk driver was “a freak,” said they will make numerous changes to the intersection where it occurred.

The city will place a new signal on the northern portion of a traffic island situated at the intersection of Canada Boulevard and Verdugo Road, 140 feet in front of the existing signal, said Glendale City Manger David H. Ramsay.

Ramsay said both signals will change on an interval basis in an effort to slow traffic traveling south on Canada Boulevard, a wide sloping street that merges from three lanes to two lanes without warning, funneling traffic through the intersection. The existing signal, obscured by a curve in the road, remains green until a pedestrian pushes a button to cross the street.

Ramsay said the city also will add guardrails to the northern and southern ends of the traffic island as well as building 7-inch curbs around it.

Traffic Light Warning

Additionally, a street sign warning drivers of the upcoming traffic light will be posted along Canada Boulevard.

Ramsay said he ordered a study of the intersection in an effort to prevent “what in our minds is a freak accident from occurring again.”

The addition of a sidewalk to the east side of Verdugo Road also is under consideration, “but there are a number of right-of-way issues we have to deal with first,” Ramsay said.

The city also is planning to landscape the dirt-filled island as a memorial to the victims. Under consideration is a plan to plant one tree for each of the four victims.

Two Glendale women and their two daughters were killed July 6 when a suspected drunk driver traveling south on Canada Boulevard drove his car into the traffic island and struck them. A son of one of the women was injured in the accident.