Boy’s Accident Spurs Caution at Crosswalks

A crossing guard began escorting children across Orangethorpe Avenue at Brookhurst Street on Wednesday, and an Orangethorpe Elementary School supervisor warns youngsters not to cross at Pacific Drive, where a 7-year-old boy was hit by a car recently.

The boy, Cameron Schade, was struck Oct. 1 while crossing the street on his way home from school. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange and transferred to a hospital in Los Angeles, where he is in a coma with a broken shoulder, femur and tibia.

The school supervisor and crossing guard will continue to watch the children as they arrive and when they leave the school while the City Council awaits a recommendation from the Fullerton Transportation Commission on whether a traffic signal should be installed at Pacific and Orangethorpe.

Several residents this week demanded that the city do so, saying a traffic light may prevent another accident. They said drivers often speed through the intersection and don’t see the children who cross there.

Three years ago on Halloween night, two girls were hit and killed. The driver who hit them, James Shomo, also urged the City Council to erect a signal.

“It’s been a nightmare to realize that there hasn’t been anything done to fix this problem,” Shomo said this week, wiping tears from his eyes. “It sickens me. . . . If there was a traffic light there, I would have stopped. The children wouldn’t be dead. Let’s not let this happen again.”

The Fullerton School District is paying for the supervisor. The cost of the crossing guard will be split by the city and the district.

The traffic commission has set a public hearing Nov. 6 on the traffic light proposal. After reviewing the results, the City Council will decide Nov. 19 on whether to install the signal.