Parents Call For Change To Improve Traffic Safety Around Sacramento Elementary School
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Parents and school staff met with Sacramento city officials to improve traffic safety around a local elementary school.
This comes after a parent was hit by a car and killed outside the school earlier this year.
Parents at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School are calling for change and trying to make streets safer around the campus.
"It's very dangerous," Ladan Ghobad said.
"We just want to get everyone where they need to be as safely and as effectively as we can every single day, every single time," Gonzales said.
In January, a mother was hit and killed by a car while walking in front of the school to pick up her child.
"As a mother, I am still scared of walking around this area where the tragedy happened," Ghobad said.
The driver has been charged with manslaughter and is accused of running a red light. It's one of eleven fatal crashes in Sacramento so far this year.
"This should have never happened and it is possible to prevent this type of thing from happening through design," said City Council Member Katie Valenzuela.
So what is Sacramento doing to make streets safer around the school? Since the crash, new rumble strips have been installed, larger school zone signs and stop lights have been added, and police have conducted undercover crosswalk stings.
Long-term plans call for putting the busy four-lane section of Folsom Boulevard on what traffic engineers call a "road diet."
"We can make the entirety of Folsom Boulevard two lanes and try to slow down traffic across the board to make it a little safer for everybody," Valenzuela said.
City leaders say this is another example of a growing problem with unsafe driving.
"Anywhere you go, you'll see cars blowing through stop signs, blowing through red lights, speeding, racing to get to the next intersection and I think, as a community, we need to take some responsibility for how we drive," Valenzuela said.
And parents want change now before another life is lost.
"The worst thing is sometimes these tragedies happen but people forget about it," Ghobad said.
Last year, Sacramento had 53 fatal vehicle collisions on city streets — that's the highest number in more than 30 years.