Site of Boy’s Death Was Due to Get Signal

VAN NUYS — City traffic officials two months ago directed that a traffic light be installed at the intersection where a 7-year-old boy visiting from Armenia was killed by a car this week, but the job received such a low priority it has not yet been carried out.

The city Department of Transportation approved erection of a signal at Fulton Avenue and Erwin Street on Oct. 13, but because of a backlog of requests for more traffic lights around the city and the low priority for a signal at that intersection, no date had been set to place a light at that corner, Tom Jones, a senior engineer at the Department of Transportation, said Thursday.

“People are not going to like reading this, especially after what happened, but it could take as long as two years” to install the light, Jones said. “Before the fatality, it was a very marginal decision to put a signal there at all.”

And the death will not necessarily speed up the process, Jones said.

At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Armen Abramian was crossing the intersection in a marked crosswalk with his 17-year-old brother, Artash Abramian, when Armen was hit by a car. His family had arrived in Los Angeles four days previously for a Christmas visit.

Los Angeles police traffic detectives are investigating the accident, and no charges have been filed against the driver, Kip Stolberg, 29, of Sherman Oaks, said Detective Jim Mann.

Mann said investigators believe Stolberg was traveling about 30 to 35 m.p.h. at the time--which is below the posted speed limit in the area. Police also found no evidence that Stolberg had been drinking or taking drugs before the accident.

But Stolberg still could be charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, Mann said.

On Thursday, investigators were unable to interview Artash Abramian about the accident. “They were grieving too much, and they requested that we meet sometime early next week, so I honored that request,” Mann said.

Also Thursday, a woman who identified herself as a friend told The Times that Stolberg was “devastated” by the accident. She said the area is not lighted well enough and the crosswalk is hard to see.

Residents of the area have complained that the combination of inadequate lighting and the lack of a traffic signal at the intersection makes the corner hazardous.

A neighborhood watch group has turned in a petition with 150 signatures and since September, 1992, has lobbied City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, former Mayor Tom Bradley and Mayor Richard Riordan for a traffic light.

The request for the traffic signal was forwarded to the city’s Transportation Department in December, 1992, but not approved until two months ago, officials said.

“When I read about the accident in the paper this morning, I was angry, I was mad,” said Doug Claybourne, a member of the neighborhood group. “I called the councilman’s office and said, ‘Do we have to have someone die to get a light here?’ ”

“It is an easy intersection to miss,” added resident Ford Roosevelt. “Cars just zoom through.”

Traffic officials said the process took so long because they had to physically count the number of pedestrians using the crosswalk to determine whether there was enough foot traffic to warrant a light.

But because the first study was done when Irwin Street Elementary School--about a half block away--was not in session, a new survey had to be conducted. As a result, the process was delayed for several months, said Jones, the traffic department engineer.

Meanwhile, the family will probably bury the child in Los Angeles instead of flying his body back to Armenia because of the expenses involved, said the family’s attorney, Zorik Mooradian.