A Welcome Forum on Safe Streets

Santa Ana’s problems with pedestrians being struck by cars have become sufficiently acute to draw the attention of state legislators.

Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) and other members of the Assembly Transportation Committee have scheduled a public hearing in Santa Ana next month to discuss how to make the city’s streets safer. The attention is deserved.

A UC Irvine study found that Santa Ana has the highest pedestrian death rate in Southern California. Young Latino children are especially at risk for pedestrian injuries in the city, which has the largest Latino population of any city in the county.

Santa Ana police properly have been cracking down on jaywalkers and motorists who fail to yield the right of way to those on foot. Yet seven pedestrians have been killed in Santa Ana so far this year, two more than the toll for all of last year.

Police also have been trying to educate children about the need to stay on the sidewalks and about the dangers from cars, concepts not always immediately grasped by young children. Parents play an important role here, letting their children know the perils, and police have urged parents to do just that.

Correa rightly questioned the city’s decision to raise speed limits on many roads in the past few years. Santa Ana officials have argued that state law requires the increases because limits must be set at or near the speed traveled by 85% of motorists. But as we have noted, that makes no sense. It amounts to letting those with lead feet determine how fast everyone can drive. Correa said new laws to address public safety may be required.

The Santa Ana hearings may provide more assistance to legislators in determining additional solutions to the problem. City officials will have a chance to report on their attempts to reduce the carnage. Cooperation in determining what will increase safety, be it more traffic lights, lower speed limits or other measures, and in paying for additional steps can help the city rid itself of its spot at the top of a list where it does not want to be.