City to Study Signal for Accident Site

A proposal to install a traffic signal at Orangethorpe Avenue and Pacific Drive, where a boy recently was hit and seriously injured, will be considered by the City Council at its next session.

The 7-year-old boy, Cameron Schade, was struck by a car last month while crossing the intersection in the crosswalk near his elementary school. Officials said he is at home in a semi-coma.

After he was hit, residents of the area urged the City Council to install a traffic signal.

The request is not the first. Hundreds of residents asked city officials to install a signal in 1993, after two girls, 9-year-old cousins Christina Mach and Alice Lee, were hit by a car and killed in the same intersection. City officials decided against a signal at that time, saying it was unnecessary because the volume of cars and people was too low.

This time, however, the city’s Transportation and Circulation Commission is recommending that the City Council install a stoplight because the traffic flow has increased. The commission also is recommending that trees blocking the view of drivers entering Orangethorpe from Pacific be trimmed.

Council members will decide whether to do so Nov. 19.

Until then, a crossing guard and an Orangethorpe Elementary School supervisor will escort children across Orangethorpe at Brookhurst Street and warn them not to cross at Pacific.

In another effort to increase safety at the intersection, city officials said the Orange County Transportation Authority has agreed to remove a bus stop nearby.