YORBA LINDA : Area Near School Gets Traffic Light

A traffic light installed near the spot where a 6-year-old boy was fatally struck in 1990 went into operation last week.

The light is at Orange Drive and Valley View Avenue, about 400 yards north of where Fairmont School student Ravi Patel was crossing Valley View on Nov. 8, 1990.

The boy was at the rear of a single-file line of schoolchildren returning from an outing with their teacher when he and two other students were struck.

The class had visited Valley View Sports Park across the street from the school but were not in a crosswalk at the time. Patel died a few days later.

After the tragedy, parents of students at the private school lobbied the City Council for a stoplight and crosswalk in front of the school, as well as a stop sign at Orange Drive and Valley View Avenue, where there is a crosswalk.

At that time, City Engineer Roy Stephenson said traffic surveys both before and after the accident showed that a stop sign was not warranted at the intersection.

In addition, a traffic light and crosswalk in front of the school, which is in the middle of the block, would only create more safety problems, city officials had said.

“Conceivably, you can confuse the motorists and create a situation you were trying to avoid,” City Atty. Leonard Hampel told the council last year.

But now, city officials attribute their decision to install the light to an increase in traffic caused by the opening last year of a 73,500-square-foot grocery store next to the park and across the street from the school.

The city required Smith’s Food and Drug to install the light as a condition of approving the project.

Pam Shellhorn, who has two children at Fairmont, was part of the parents group that had lobbied for the light.

“It’s about time,” Shellhorn said. “We had been after it for a while, even before the accident.”

Since the accident, Fairmont students have been taken by bus across Valley View Avenue to the park, which the school uses in its physical education program.

Although the light is not where the school requested, Shellhorn said it will make the area safer.

“It’s not just a Fairmont School issue,” Shellhorn said, noting that there is a middle school near the park and that the street is crossed by many parents and children who use the park on weekends.