Seattle
resident Colette Johnson has spent the past month and a
half in Noe Valley, recovering from injuries sustained
Aug. 10 when she was hit by a pickup on Dolores at
Valley Street. Photo by Najib Joe
Hakim
If you’ve been involved in a traffic accident at 24th and Church
streets, had a close call, or witnessed an accident there,
Bruce, Daniels, and Moore would like to hear from you.
No, BD&M are not personal
injury lawyers. They are Catherine Bruce, her husband Ed
Moore, and Kevin Daniels, all of whose lives have been
affected by collisions at the busy Noe Valley intersection.
After reading a Voice story
about Daniels’ one-man campaign to make the intersection safer
(“Accident at 24th & Church a Call to Action for Nearby
Resident,” May 2011), Bruce and Moore offered Daniels their
help. The Jersey Street couple, both with high-tech
backgrounds, suggested setting up an online forum where
neighbors could share experiences and mobilize community
support for safety measures. Daniels immediately accepted
their offer.
Daniels, whose 24th Street condo
overlooks the intersection, was stirred to action after a
pedestrian was struck in the crosswalk between Sterling Bank
and Happy Donuts. He said that while hazardous conditions are
well-known, “people feel helpless.” He hopes that the group’s
new website,www.NoeValleyTrafficSafety.com, will
empower residents to press City Hall for change.
Like Daniels, Moore and Bruce
support installing traffic signals at the intersection, which
has streetcar platforms and heavy vehicle and foot traffic.
They are convinced that traffic lights and “Walk/Don’t Walk”
signals could have prevented the Dec. 20, 2009, accident that
put Moore in San Francisco General Hospital for nearly seven
weeks.
Moore, 60, was about
three-quarters of the way across Church, between Navvarete’s
martial arts studio and the donut shop, shortly after dark
when he was struck by a southbound car and thrown 20 feet past
the crosswalk. Bills for his hospitalization, surgery to
reconstruct a fractured arm and leg, and nearly a year of
physical therapy totaled $1 million, an amount he notes could
pay for signals to be installed at 24th and Church, as well as
two or three other intersections.
To document dangers, Daniels, an
industrial film maker, is shooting traffic at the corner. He
hopes to edit the hours of video into a 15-minute highlight
reel of near-misses to display on the website and show at
community meetings. Daniels said the three hope to enlist the
help of such groups as Friends of Noe Valley and Upper Noe
Neighbors, as well as merchant and parent-teacher
organizations, to campaign for safety throughout the
neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Moore, who still
walks with a limp and uses a cane nearly two years after his
accident, is counting vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the
intersection. According to his reading of the Manual
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the
intersection more than meets federal standards for
installation of traffic signals. But since it can take up to
three years for signals to be green-lighted, the trio is
advocating stepped-up police enforcement, traffic-calming
measures, and public awareness campaigns in the interim.
Serious Injury on Dolores
Street
A new group
focused on traffic safety is asking pedestrians and
drivers to help document accidents at the intersection
of Church and 24th Street.
One street that might benefit
from traffic-calming is Dolores between 30th and Cesar Chavez
streets. Extra wide because of its palm-studded median and
lacking crosswalks at many intersections, the thoroughfare can
be unfriendly to pedestrians. Colette Johnson, a 23-year-old
visitor from Seattle, learned that the hard way.
Johnson was walking west across
Dolores at Valley Street at about 6 p.m. on Aug. 10 when she
was struck by a pickup turning left into the northbound lanes.
She was rushed to San Francisco General with a fractured
skull, intracranial bleeding, and a herniated disc in her
neck.
After two weeks in the hospital,
Johnson, who lived on Valley Street as a child, is
recuperating at the home of a family friend. She is suffering
from memory loss, double vision, chronic dizziness, and loss
of taste and smell. She faces months of speech and physical
therapy and has had to put her dream of being a Fulbright
scholar on hold.
Recent accidents such as
Johnson’s, plus fatalities at 18th and Hartford and 14th and
Noe streets, have gotten the attention of District 8
Supervisor Scott Wiener. In his September newsletter, Wiener
acknowledged problems at such intersections as 24th and
Church, Bosworth and Diamond in Glen Park, and Noe and Market
in the Castro and declared that pedestrian safety is one of
his “most important policy goals.”
Bruce, Moore, and Daniels aim to
make sure that goal is met.
