A fatal traffic incident at an elementary school on Tuesday, April 25, prompted members of the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee to tackle the problem of street safety with a renewed sense of urgency this week.
A mother was killed and her six-year-old daughter left in critical condition after a car collided into them outside of Hancock Park Elementary School. Then, mere hours before the city council committee was scheduled to meet, a 14-year-old student was struck by a car near Berendo Middle School in Downtown Los Angeles.
These incidents were fresh in the minds of council members as they passed motions designed to increase the number of speed bumps and crossing guards outside LAUSD campuses.
“Traffic-related violence and death cannot be the status quo,” said Councilmember Heather Hutt, chair of the council’s Transportation Committee. “No one else should have to lose someone they love while they’re trying to get to school. … We can’t allow this to happen again.”
The first motion the committee approved seeks to establish a dedicated speed bump program for all schools and calls for a report on the required funding, resources and reasonable timeline for doing so. The second motion the committee approved was to explore ways to encourage more people to become school crossing guards.
LAUSD School Board Member Nick Melvoin expressed his support for the motions after spending the previous day comforting staff, students and families at Hancock Elementary School, which is in his board district.
“I don’t know if a crossing guard, a speed bump, or a sign would have prevented this tragedy, but I do know that these motions can prevent future ones,” Melvoin said. “I’m here today asking you for your support to help us get there.”
There is currently plenty of money allocated toward crossing guards, but the city’s Department of Transportation is struggling to staff the positions. Of the 500 funded positions, about 200 are vacant.
Some of the hiring challenges include the inconvenient shift hours—a two- to three-hour block in the morning and a similar block in the afternoon—as well as the $22 an hour pay, according to a staff report.
The crossing guard motion approved by the city council committee will look into ways to streamline the hiring process, offer referral bonuses — and explore higher pay.
Councilmember Nithya Raman also suggested that the city reach out to parent volunteers as well as part-time staff in the school district, to fill those roles.
“We might leverage part-time workers at the district so we can create an opportunity to get somebody from part-time to full time,” she said. “That’s going to require some creativity, some rolling up the sleeves and a lot of conversations.”
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho also expressed the need to think outside the box.
“No child or mother crossing the street using a crosswalk should become the victims, as they did,” said Carvalho, during the April 26 meeting. “We need to ask ourselves why, and why not, have solutions to mitigate against this?”
Carvalho suggested that the committee look into additional safety technologies such as flashing light programs that let drivers know there are stricter enforcements of speed limits in school zones.
“There are best practices across the world, in the country and in other cities that we think we can import here,” he added.
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Raman said the city should tackle the speed bump program with a sense of urgency. She said she has been frustrated by how long it takes to install street safety measures in her district, which includes Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills, Hancock Park, Sherman Oaks and other communities.
“We’ve been trying to put more traffic lights in our district and the time it takes to get these traffic lights installed and to find the designs to put them in place is eye-popping. It takes three years,” she said. “That’s just not acceptable.”
Despite the somber occasion that drew school district leaders and councilmembers together, the meeting concluded on a positive note with both parties vowing to work hand-in-hand to improve street safety.
“I want to thank members of the council and this committee for their emerging leadership on this issue,” said Melvoin. “Working together I believe that we can create streets that are more pedestrian- and family-friendly, and create a city that supports our district’s goal of allowing children in L.A. to thrive.”