A 59-year-old man was struck by a car Saturday afternoon in the pedestrian crosswalk on Santa Monica Boulevard near Westmount in West Hollywood.
Sgt. Chris Tatar of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said that when the man was hit his body was flung up onto the windshield of the car. Tatar said charges may be filed against the driver of the car on further investigation.
That crosswalk, frequently used by those headed back and forth from the Starbucks coffee shop on the south side of Santa Monica, is one of several where the city has installed blinking lights to warn motorists that they must stop for pedestrians.
However pedestrians in the area often don’t press the button that activates the lights. It also is not uncommon to see pedestrians in the crosswalk focused on their mobile phones rather than the cars around them.
A report to the City Council earlier this year said the Sheriff’s Department had identified four accidents involving pedestrians and one involving a bicyclist at the Hancock Avenue crossing of Santa Monica and three pedestrian accidents at the Palm crossing. The Council in February authorized the installation of blinking lights at those crossings and the one at San Vicente Boulevard.
[…] to address perceived public safety issues at the city’s crosswalks that was sparked by a motorist hitting a pedestrian on June 28 in the crosswalk on Santa Monica Boulevard at […]
I don’t see any “victim shaming” here. How many pedestrians being hit would it take before drivers learn their lesson?
This “staff” author is absolutely “victim-shaming” as a previous commenter noted. Blaming the victims of using their cell phones is reprehensible. I cross at this crosswalk frequently. Drivers on this stretch treat SMB like a freeway. As a fellow driver that uses SMB frequently as well, I would not be opposed to Botts’ Dots as you approach the cross walk to alert and remind drivers that they are, indeed, in a high foot traffic area. One of the advantages to living in West Hollywood is that so much of the city is accessible by foot. I, for one, limit the… Read more »
i dont think there is a way to really fix this situation in LA . i grew up in new york city where crossing the street is an everyman for himself situation .. you dont wait for the light to change or use a dedicated cross walk. you just cross when you can. not saying that is how it should be out here in LA. people out here in LA actually really frown on that method of crossing the street. but the difference is , the pedestrian in that situation is completely aware of the traffic and wont just walk… Read more »
I would NEVER try to cross without feeling comfortable that traffic was going to stop for me…BUT…I’d love to see drivers that don’t stop according to the law fined heavily with mandatory license suspensions. A big problem is the fact that drivers know that the chances of them being caught breaking the law is close to nil.
WeHoVaud, I don’t even know where to begin …..
We’re talking about saving lives here. There are ALWAYS going to be distracted drivers and pedestrians who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. You can’t legislate that away. Promoting WeHo as pedestrian friendly doesn’t mean disregarding the reality that cars are also going to be around. Pedestrians with a smug, self-righteous sense of entitlement condescend to those in cars at their own peril. It’s not that much trouble to cross at a light.
The insults and name-calling don’t promote your cause at all.
Firstly: ” It also is not uncommon to see pedestrians in the crosswalk focused on their mobile phones rather than the cars around them.” The article author should be ashamed of themselves – victim shaming the pedestrians who are doing nothing wrong at all, and by implication, suggesting that this particular incident is inevitable due to their carelessness, not that of the drivers. Where is the paragraph to point out that car drivers use their cell phones (COMPLETELY ILLEGALLY) at about the same frequency that pedestrians do (LEGALLY). I use these crosswalks frequently and have had near misses – not… Read more »
Finally, Randy Mathews lists the perfect answer, one I’ve mentioned myself before! We need a partial traffic light just like the one at Canters, you press it, it takes a minute to turn and in that time pedestrians can gather (versus the one by one that causes traffic to grant to a halt, unnecessarily.) then when the light does turn, it becomes a flashing red light. So cars can still proceed, when the coast is clear, as they treat it like a stop sign. This is the only reasonable option (besides my dream that the city make a couple footbridges… Read more »
Has everyone gone crazy – that is a busy crossing that I use on a very regular basis – I always use caution when using this crossing but that makes no difference when you get an aggressive / ignorant driver that can clearly see traffic has stopped to let pedestrians cross yet they still continue over the crossing without blinking an eye some motorists will even change lanes if a car has stopped in front of them and just continue driving when someone is on the crossing!!
Does anyone know the condition of the man that was struck by the car?
Luca, before you make statements like that, try living through a situation where a pedestrian runs out in front of your car, and you are the driver. Also, as previous people have mentioned, other cities have put up fences to prevent people from walking out into traffic. I find it heartless to just look at this type of thing as “natural selection.” With that type of attitude, why would have safety measures for anything? Our government should be there, even sometimes to keep people from doing reckless things.
Having been almost hit three times in crosswalks in the past month I think our issue is drivers are OUT TO LUNCH – WAKE THE F UP!!!!