Signal at School Crossing OKd, but It May Take 9 Months : Safety: Supervisors approve a traffic light near Lake Marie Elementary where a crossing guard was killed in June. County engineers said their studies did not justify the signal.

Citing safety concerns and ignoring the advice of their own engineers, county supervisors have approved a traffic signal at a south Whittier intersection where a crossing guard was killed earlier this year.

Parents and officials of the South Whittier School District hailed the decision but are upset at county estimates that it may take nine months to install the signal at Carmenita Road and Trumball Street.

The Board of Supervisors approved the signal last week because Carmenita Road in front of Lake Marie Elementary School “is a bit of a racetrack situation,” said Dennis Morefield, spokesman for Supervisor Deane Dana. “The supervisor just felt it made sense to move ahead and protect the kids.”

The supervisors’ action overruled county engineers who said that traffic studies failed to justify a signal at Carmenita and Trumball, which is a short, quiet, dead-end residential street. At the request of parents and South Whittier School District officials, engineers have studied traffic at the intersection at least four times since 1986 and have always reached the same conclusion. With such little cross traffic from Trumball, a signal is not needed, Traffic Engineer Christopher Ramstead said.

Ramstead noted that few pedestrians use the crosswalk except before and after school when a crossing guard is present. He also said that the intersection has a good safety rating compared with other intersections. The only recorded accident of any kind in the last year was the one in June that killed crossing guard John Antonio Vela.

A car driven by a drunk driver struck and killed the 66-year-old Vela within feet of two kindergartners waiting to cross.

“It takes a death before you can put a traffic signal in there,” parent Deborah Smiley said. “I think it’s totally ridiculous.”

A judge this month sentenced the driver, Patrick Robert McLaughlin, to four years in state prison on manslaughter and hit-and-run charges.

PTA leader Stella Marker, who chased McLaughlin and ordered him to return to the accident scene, said she never lets her children cross Carmenita. “Just driving my car to the school and changing lanes to make a left turn is dangerous,” Marker said.

Marker said it is absurd to make the traffic on quiet Trumball Street a determining factor. The problem is Carmenita Road, a heavily traveled north-south route for commuters and truckers. Lake Marie Elementary is located in the middle of a half-mile segment of Carmenita Road with no traffic signal. County officials recently clocked drivers traveling more than 80 m.p.h. in front of the school. Speeds close to 60 are common, they said.

Smiley said she cannot go less than 35 m.p.h. on Carmenita without risking a rear-end collision. Even so, she said, “They honk. They go around you. They will not slow down.”

Crossing guard Jeannette Gennawey, who replaced Vela, said she already has experienced a near-miss or two since the last traffic study. On Monday, a car and a truck collided at the intersection when a driver tried to make a U-turn. On Tuesday morning, a man talking on a car phone whizzed right past her, ignoring her signal to stop. “I could have thrown my stop sign at him,” she said in frustration. That afternoon there was another accident, involving three cars, but no children.

“Nine months is going to be too long to wait,” parent Gen Duncanwood said. “I want the signal tomorrow.”

Parents, community leaders and school officials said traffic hazards are not unique to Lake Marie Elementary School. The school district also wants signals at intersections near two other elementary schools, and it is seeking an additional crossing guard at a third location, Associate Supt. Robert Whitacre said.

“There have been a lot of improvements on the highways, and subsequently the flow of the traffic has increased and so has the speed,” Whitacre said. “Even though the district covers only 4.2 square miles, there are several major thoroughfares. I constantly hear of near misses at Lake Marie Elementary as well as at all of our major intersections.”

District enrollment has increased 17% during the past 10 years, putting more students on the streets. During the same period, developers have built industrial complexes and shopping areas in nearby cities and more residences in South Whittier.

Vela’s death was the second recent crosswalk fatality for the school system. A hit-and-run driver struck and killed 4-year-old Mandy Halstead at McKibben Elementary on nearby Mills Avenue in November, 1990. County workers installed a signal at that corner within two months, said Terri Halstead, Mandy’s mother.

Halstead, who was just elected to the school board, said she would lobby county officials to put in the Lake Marie signal immediately.

“We’ve had two accidents in two days there,” she said. “So far, our children have not been involved. How long will it be before they are?”