Walk to School Hazardous for Santa Ana Kids

Children walking near Santa Ana’s schools were involved in nearly half the pedestrian accidents recorded in the city during the last five months, according to a new study that has prompted fresh concerns over student safety.

The report was prepared by the Santa Ana Unified School District in response to an earlier UC Irvine study that found the city has the highest pedestrian fatality rate in Southern California and the third highest in the state.

The school district review determined that 52 of the 72 pedestrian accidents since Jan. 1 occurred within a quarter-mile of schools, and 39 of the victims were children.

Willard Intermediate School topped the list with five accidents during the period, all involving children between the ages of 5 and 12. Students and residents report that motorists regularly speed by the school, running stop signs and ignoring children using the crosswalks.

“The cars pass here like it’s a freeway,” said resident Agustavo Ramos, who lives off the two-lane street in front of the school.

School board members expressed worry over the findings and called on the city to consider adding new stop signs, traffic lights, crosswalks and other safety measures around campuses.

“I want to know what the city’s criteria is for when they put in a new traffic light,” school board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji said. “We have the two largest entities in the city, and we haven’t sat down formally to talk about how to solve the problem. . . . It’s crazy out there.”

Board member Nativo Lopez agreed, adding: “This is a wake-up call.”

The school district report comes several days after The Times published an analysis of more than 300 pedestrian accidents in Santa Ana over the last three years. The analysis found several areas with high numbers of accidents, including a one-mile stretch of West 1st Street where five pedestrians died.

In response to the article and the school district report, Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) said Tuesday he plans to have staff members meet with city officials next week to determine whether any additional state money can be used to improve pedestrian safety.

“When you look at those statistics, I think it’s clear that we have to focus on the safety of children,” he said. “Nobody [denies] that it has to be our No. 1 priority.”

The city in March began a major enforcement effort that includes more jaywalking patrols and a public-education campaign targeting the city’s Latino population. Since the crackdown began, police have issued more than 1,500 jaywalking citations and more than 250 tickets to motorists who failed to yield to pedestrians.

But officials also have said they don’t have enough money to make safety improvements--such as raised traffic medians--on some problem roads such as West 1st Street.

Correa, however, said a bill now working its way through the Assembly could make available money for such work. The “Safe Routes to School” bill would provide $20 million statewide for traffic safety improvements around schools.

Hundreds of pedestrians are injured each year on the streets of Santa Ana. So far this year, five people have died--one shy of the city’s pedestrian death rate for all of last year.

The UCI study found that children ages 1 to 14 accounted for 46% of pedestrian injuries. “The majority of child pedestrian injuries occur on residential streets near the child’s home,” the report stated. “Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for children.”

City officials expressed interest Wednesday in working with the school district to bolster pedestrian safety but said there are limits to what traffic engineers can do.

They said the best way to cut the number of pedestrian accidents is to educate children and their parents with safety tips.

“We can’t engineer how people behave on the roads,” said Jim Ross, executive director of the city’s public works agency. Most accidents, he said, are the result of pedestrians crossing streets in unsafe areas.

Educators agree that more safety education is important but maintain that it represents only part of the solution.

James Miyashiro, the school district’s police chief, said some motorists simply drive too fast around schools and that additional stop signs and pedestrian warning lights might slow traffic down.

Residents who live around Willard school agree, saying the situation now is too dangerous for students. There’s a crosswalk near the school, but some residents said they are afraid to use it because motorists often refuse to yield.

“We’ve got to wait for the cars, but the cars are supposed to wait for you,” said Eduardo Reyes, 14, a former Willard student.

“Sometimes I go halfway [through the crosswalk] and have to return,” added resident Rosie Velasquez.

While Willard had the most accidents, Carver, King and Walker elementary schools as well as Lathrop Intermediate School each recorded three accidents so far this year, according to the report.

Pedestrian safety is far from a new issue at local schools.

Teachers and parents at Madison Elementary School have lobbied the city for a decade to install a traffic signal near their campus, which has been the site of several accidents. The city said it is now studying the area but hasn’t decided whether to grant the request.

School Supt. Al Mijares said the city usually responds favorably to requests for crossing guards and stop signs. For example, the city recently agreed to install a four-way stop sign at Pio Pico Elementary School.

While they wait for additional traffic improvements, school officials have stepped up educational programs and periodically send pedestrian safety tips home to parents.

City officials praise the schools’ educational efforts but said some of the proposed road improvements--such as crosswalks--are misguided.

“Crosswalks are not going to solve the problem,” Councilwoman Patricia McGuigan said. “We have been removing them because [they provide pedestrians with] false sense of security. Traffic lights are very expensive. Stop signs help, but unless they’re enforced, people don’t pay attention to them.”

Times staff writer Brady MacDonald contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Danger Zone

A report found that 52 pedestrians had been injured so far this year in accidents within a quarter-mile of schools in Santa Ana. The five schools with the most nearby accidents:

* Willard Intermediate, Washington Avenue and Ross Street, five accidents

* Carver Elementary, Santa Ana Boulevard and Hesperian Street, three accidents

* Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, McFadden Avenue and Bristol Street, three accidents

* Lathrop Intermediate, Main Street and McFadden Avenue, three accidents

* Walker Elementary, Standard Avenue and Bishop Street, three accidents

Source: Santa Ana Unified School District