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.