Funds to Pay for Safer Intersections

Some of Santa Ana’s most dangerous intersections will receive traffic signals and other improvements under a state program designed to reduce pedestrian accident rates around California campuses.

The pedestrian safety problem in Santa Ana played an important role in passage of the state’s $20-million Safe Routes to School program. The city suffers from one of the state’s highest pedestrian accident rates, and half of all pedestrian accidents involved children walking within a few blocks of a school, according to one study.

The program was approved in late 1999, but the funds were not awarded until Wednesday. Santa Ana will receive the bulk of the more than $1 million granted to Orange County cities.

The planned improvements are designed to make it easier for children to navigate high-risk intersections, including downtown crossings with heavy traffic and others where children have been injured.

Among the intersections is Highland and Flower streets near Pio Pico and Lowell Elementary schools, where hundreds of children cross daily. Teachers said a stop sign erected earlier this year has not curtailed reckless driving.

Under the proposal, a traffic light, sidewalks and more signs will be added at the crossing.