School Officials Press for Signal at Junior High : Sepulveda: A 12-year-old boy hit Tuesday brings to four the number of students struck by cars since September.

School administrators will again ask the city to install traffic lights at a crosswalk in front of Sepulveda Junior High School, where four students have been hit by cars since September.

The most recent incident occurred Tuesday when a 12-year-old boy suffered a broken leg after he was struck by a car while walking to school. Police are searching for the driver, who allegedly stopped to check on the boy, then left without identifying himself.

Traffic along Plummer Street, which runs in front of the junior high, is “like a racetrack,” according to Los Angeles police. The speed limit in a school zone is 25 m.p.h. when children are present. Students who cross Plummer must do so at its intersection with Columbus Avenue, which is marked by a crosswalk and yellow school signs.

“The drivers don’t pay attention,” said Dennis Sierks, 13, who was knocked off his bicycle and bruised when a car hit him in the crosswalk last year. “Especially in the morning, they rush to get to work.”

Last fall, school administrators asked for a crossing guard but were told that the city transportation department assigns such service to elementary schools only.

Then the Los Angeles Unified School District asked that a traffic signal be erected at the intersection. The transportation department replied in an Oct. 11 letter that “a complete analysis of traffic conditions at this location indicates that the installation of a traffic signal . . . cannot be justified at the present time.”

“At this point, I don’t know what more justification they need,” said Alfredo Tarin, the school’s assistant principal. “The problem didn’t just start this year; it’s been an ongoing situation for a long time.”

In the wake of Tuesday’s accident, transportation engineers said they would reanalyze the intersection if asked to do so. School district officials said they would make such a request later this week.

Engineers studied the intersection last fall before the spate of accidents--in which two students were hospitalized and two suffered minor injuries--and concluded that no stop sign was needed because only one accident had been reported in the five years prior to 1990-91.

Three pedestrians must be struck and injured within a calendar year before the city will add a traffic light, said Al Albaisa, a city transportation engineer. Other circumstances are also considered.

“Not all accidents are correctable by a signal,” Albaisa said. “When you have teen-agers crossing the street, they have to exercise due care. If they don’t, a signal won’t help.”

Teachers and administrators said they have repeatedly warned students about traffic hazards.

“They told us that when we get to the corner, we should form a little group so the cars will see us and stop,” said Nadine Perez, 14.

But one resident who lives across the street from the campus said that “there are screeching tires all the time” on Plummer and that parents worry that looking both ways won’t be enough to ensure the safety of their children.