Too Late for Little Victim, Stoplight Is Finally Installed

For more than two years, residents in the area of El Toro Road and Normandale Drive pleaded for a stoplight at the intersection.

They said the accident-prone, six-lane crossing was a deathtrap. Tragically, the prediction proved accurate. On July 28, a neighborhood child, Andy Dao, 6, died in a two-vehicle collision at the intersection.

Andy’s death galvanized the families who live near the intersection. Last month they began circulating a petition to the county. They wrote letters. They made phone calls. They held a vigil at the intersection.

Among those participating in the Aug. 8 vigil was Andy’s mother, Phuong Dao. As tears streamed down her cheeks, she said: “If there had been a light, I believe Andy would be alive now. I hope whoever is responsible for lights will pay attention to this as soon as possible.”

Today, a stoplight is in place. County government had authorized a light for the intersection more than a year ago. But delays crept in. Officials at the county’s Environmental Management Agency (EMA) pointed fingers at a private development firm, the Baldwin Co., which had been assigned by the county to get the stoplight installed. An official at Baldwin, in turn, pointed fingers at county bureaucracy, saying county EMA officials were dragging their feet in approving plans for the light.

Both EMA and Baldwin had predicted that it would be November or later before the stoplight could finally be installed. Residents groaned when told in August about still more delays. They complained that school would soon be starting, so more young lives would be endangered as students tried to cross the intersection to get to school buses.

Then County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who represents the area, stepped in. “It’s our wish to get this moving expeditiously,” he said tersely on Aug. 8.

Wheels then began to turn. To the residents’ delight, work crews began assembling the stoplight a few days later. By Sept. 6, the stoplight was installed and working.

“It makes such a difference,” said Marilyn Judge, a neighbor of the Dao family. “I was crossing that intersection just the other day, and as I crossed El Toro on the green light, able to get across all six lanes safely, I was thinking that little Andy would be alive today if that light had been in place then.”

Judge said residents are grateful that the stoplight became operative just as schools were reopening.

In interviews last week, both a county EMA official and a Baldwin officer credited Vasquez with breaking the impasse. “With the help of Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez, the work on this was expedited,” said Lance Matshuhara, chief of signal design in the EMA’s traffic engineering division. “The Baldwin Co. had been waiting for material to complete the job, and they got it sooner than they expected.”

Geoffrey Fearns, executive vice president of Baldwin, said last week: “We had a meeting with Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez. We told him we were having trouble getting the type of poles approved by the county. Once the supervisor got involved, we got the poles very quickly, because he was putting pressure on the county staff to get those poles. . . . I think credit should go to Supervisor Vasquez for being the catalyst in bringing about a quick solution.”

In an interview last week, Vasquez said: “I made it clear that getting this job finished was of utmost priority to me. . . . It did require some personal intervention.”

Other county officials said much of the credit should go to the residents, who refused to stop pressing for action. Judge said neighbors could not forget what happened to Andy Dao.

“We in this neighborhood still mourn the death of little Andy,” Judge said. “And now that we have the stoplight, the next thing we hope to do is to install a plaque and plant a tree in his memory at the neighborhood park (at Vintage Way and Normandale Drive).

“Andy will always be missed in this neighborhood.”