City Gives the Green Light to Signal at School Crosswalk

A Sepulveda crosswalk where four schoolchildren have been hit by cars since September will soon get a traffic light after more than a decade of complaints from parents and a recent nudge from Mayor Tom Bradley.

The city Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it will install a traffic light in front of Sepulveda Junior High School as soon as possible. The announcement came three weeks after a 12-year-old boy’s leg was broken when he was struck by a vehicle.

Traffic engineers had studied the crosswalk last fall and decided that no signal was needed. But within days of the most recent accident, Bradley sent a pointed memo ordering that something be done to protect students walking to school.

“I’m pleased the quick report by the Department of Transportation has shown the need for a traffic signal,” Bradley said Tuesday. “For the parents and school officials of Sepulveda Junior High School, a traffic signal will end months of worry and fear of another accident.”

Although the project will start immediately, the light is not expected to be in place until November because of design and engineering concerns.

“Normally, it would take longer than that,” Jim Sherman, the city’s principal transportation engineer, said. “Because of the situation in regard to the accidents, we’re going to expedite construction.”

Plummer Street, which runs in front of the junior high school, is “like a racetrack” with cars often speeding through the 25 m.p.h. school zone, police said. On a recent morning before class, motorcycle officers wrote 10 tickets in 40 minutes. Many students must use the crosswalk at the intersection of Columbus Avenue to reach campus.

The Transportation Department said it previously decided against installing a signal because city records did not include two of the four most recent pedestrian accidents. Those two students suffered only minor injuries.

“We had no idea those accidents occurred,” Sherman said. “The problem out there didn’t appear to be all that bad.”

When studying an intersection, traffic engineers apply various guidelines to determine if a signal is needed. Those guidelines include the number of cars and pedestrians using the intersection daily. The guideline listed for accidents--both automobile and pedestrian--is three per calendar year.

Tuesday’s report to the mayor reiterated that the department does not require that three accidents occur before a change is made if a combination of other guidelines is met. The report stated that traffic engineers use the guidelines to predict traffic problems.

“There will be some instances, such as Columbus Avenue and Plummer Street, however, where recorded accidents exceed expectations,” the report stated.

For parents and teachers at the junior high school, statistics and expectations were of no importance. They had finally won their traffic light.

“It’s such a treacherous corner,” Principal Bob Reimann said. “This is really going to help keep our students safe.”