California Injury Blog
An Ontario family has started a petition drive to get a four-way stop sign and pedestrian crosswalk at what they say is an unsafe intersection where their 15-year-old son, Paul Roberts, was struck and killed by a car. According to an article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the family is asking that the city install the stop signs at the intersection of Walnut and Walker avenues in Ontario where the fateful pedestrian accident occurred in November.
The city of Ontario, however, is saying that the particular intersection does not meet state mandates for a stop sign. City officials are saying the most they can do is put up a pedestrian crosswalk and other warning signs at the apparently dangerous intersection. But the deceased teenager’s mother, Yolanda Roberts, says she will be satisfied with nothing less than stop signs.
She says she understands that the city is bound by certain laws. But she adds that when public safety is in question and lives are at stake, city government should challenge the law and “go the extra mile” for its residents, the newspaper reported. The boys’ father, Mike Roberts, told the newspaper that his son was “endangered by an unsafe road where nearby residents often complain of speeding” and say they have to dart across the street to make it alive and in one piece.
We support this family’s tremendous effort to make sure that their neighbors don’t suffer the tragedy and heartbreak they suffered. It is indeed heartening and inspiring when you see people like this couple, who take a negative experience, and channel it into something positive and beneficial to their entire community.
City leaders must stand up for their residents. It seems as if the city recognizes that this is a dangerous intersection that is not conducive to pedestrian safety. They could be held liable if such incidents were to happen again and they did not take the steps needed to ensure pedestrian safety at that dangerous intersection.