Intersection where woman was killed needs four-way stop, engineer

says

By Leslie Simmons

HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- The traffic engineering division will recommend

in January that the city add a stop sign on Sixth Street at Angeleno

Avenue, the scene of a fatal pedestrian accident in October.

The recommendation follows a weeklong study conducted at the

intersection earlier this month by the traffic engineering division.

“We would consider it a high-accident intersection,” Erik Zandvliet,

the city’s traffic engineer, said. “The types of accidents found were the

type that could be fixed by a four-way stop sign.”

Angeleno Avenue has stops signs at the east and west points of the

intersection, but none on Sixth Street, which runs north and south.

Since 1997, Zandvliet said there have been 11 accidents at the

intersection, including the fatal accident in October.

Maria Mercedes Guillana, 83, was killed Halloween morning when she was

hit by a pickup truck as she crossed Angeleno Avenue near First Christian

Church.

Guillana was thrown by the impact and later died from major head

trauma.

Zandvliet said the study was initiated by the City Council after

Guillana’s death.

The traffic study included placing counter hoses along each direction

of Sixth Street. When cars drive over the hoses, air presses against a

sensor that keeps track of how many cars drive by, Zandvliet said.

The average daily traffic on the south side of Sixth Street is 2,276

vehicles and on the north side is 1,890 vehicles, Zandvliet said. In both

directions on Angeleno, the average number of cars using the street in a

day is 2,316.

Most of the accidents at the intersection occur when people mistakenly

assume they have the right of way, Zandvliet said.

“One car would assume that the other car would stop,” he said.

The study will be presented to the Traffic and Transportation

Committee on Jan. 13. If the committee agrees to add the stop signs, the

request will be sent to the City Council for final approval.