LA JOLLA – After a vehicle struck and killed a 67-year-old woman at a Bird Rock intersection this month, local residents grieved. But they also were angry: They have worried about the intersection for years and say no one has listened to their concerns.
Graciella Mejia Martinez was crossing La Jolla Mesa Drive to get to her housekeeping job up the street when she was hit by a pickup turning left from Van Nuys Street. Martinez fell backward and struck her head on the ground, said San Diego Police Department spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz. She died at the scene from head trauma.
“She was always worried about crossing the street,” said granddaughter Julie Mejia.
Neighbors said they've been pushing San Diego since at least 2000 to put a stop sign or traffic signal at the intersection, which they say is dangerous because speeding motorists use the street as a shortcut to major thoroughfares nearby.
“You're just trying to get to your house and people are honking at you and giving you the finger just because you're slowing down to turn left,” said resident Julie Foster. “They're irate.”
Roy Agbulos, who has lived in a house at the intersection since 1997, said reckless driving has caused countless near-hits of pedestrians and three accidents in front of or on his property.
His children aren't allowed to go near the street.
Police say the danger is overstated.
Authorities said the truck that hit Martinez, driven by a 56-year-old man, was moving slowly when it bumped the woman. The driver said he did not see Martinez.
“Residents tend to have a skewed view of what's actually happening,” Muñoz said. “We go and look at the data, and there aren't any accidents.”
Police often find that people doing the speeding actually live in the neighborhood, she said.
“They need to look to themselves,” Muñoz said. “They want to give information that's going to support what they perceive to be their need for a stop sign or a stoplight.”
Despite that viewpoint, residents said the fear remains palpable.
Agbulos said “motorists stopped on Van Nuys feel they have to gun their cars onto La Jolla Mesa to enter safely,” creating a constant danger.
Mike Minder, who has lived on Van Nuys Street since 1953, said he avoids the intersection whenever possible, because he has seen countless accidents there. He drives his mother across the street when she wants to visit friends in the neighborhood, instead of letting her walk the short distance.
City Councilman Kevin Faulconer said he has received several complaints from residents since taking office. He has requested a new analysis of traffic in the neighborhood in response to the July 8 tragedy.
“I treat every traffic complaint seriously,” Faulconer said. “As conditions change, as traffic issues change, you constantly have to evaluate them.”
Faulconer said his job is to help residents cut through red tape in the city bureaucracy, and he wants San Diego to reconsider traffic-calming measures for the neighborhood.
San Diego's transportation engineering department has evaluated the intersection four times since 2000 in response to neighborhood requests, said Debbie Van Wanseele, the city's deputy director of transportation engineering operations.
Based on those reports, the city did not see the need for a traffic signal or stop sign from an engineering standpoint, she said. Other measures have been implemented to slow down traffic and make pedestrians more visible, such as narrowing the road to two lanes at the intersection and putting up brightly colored signs.
The department said the analysis requested by Faulconer should be completed by next month.
Neighbors said they would keep pressing for a solution regardless of what city officials conclude in their fifth report.
“They have a myriad of excuses, but none of them are valid when you're dealing with people's lives,” Bill Lally said.
Residents said they fear for children who must cross La Jolla Mesa Drive – which doesn't have a crossing guard – on their way to nearby Bird Rock Elementary School. They will be at the corner every Sunday evening to raise awareness of the issue until someone listens.
“I would hate for the next victim to be someone's child,” Julie Mejia said.
Jeremy Ogul is a freelance writer in San Diego.
