Placerville Pedestrian Safety
I’m Ed Smith, a Placerville car accident lawyer. Recently, an opinion piece in the local Placerville newspaper pointed out that some residents think that, despite bicycle safety improvements touted by City Council, Placerville pedestrians still face serious dangers when walking on city roadways.
City Council Meeting
At a recent City Council meeting in Placerville, members of the council celebrated their plans to make Placerville a “bike friendly” city and reported about the funds and staff resources currently being used to improve the safety of bicycles. However, some believe that bike lanes are less necessary than pedestrian improvements on major streets such as the lack of sidewalks along Placerville Drive or the narrow, unsafe bridge built in 1931.
Citizens have reported narrowly avoiding pedestrians who need to cross the Placerville Drive bridge in the dark, almost causing accidents that are likely to result in traumatic injuries.
Funds Issues
The opinion piece claims that an association of Placerville Drive property and business owners created a group to raise money for pedestrian sidewalks in 2008. The group reportedly procured about $300,000 in grant money, more than enough to construct sidewalks for the entirety of Placerville Drive.
However, the city apparently used a large amount of this money to conduct planning studies, a decision that some residents have taken issue with. The planning studies concluded that Placerville Drive would benefit most from becoming a one-way street or from constructing a series of roundabouts. Additionally, instead of focusing on Placerville Drive, the city is going to make improvements on the Clay Street bridge.
Reportedly, after around two-thirds of the funds were spent, the city used some of the grant money to build a bicycle lane along Combellack Road.
Pedestrian Accidents in Placerville
Pedestrian accidents in Placerville happen more frequently than bicycle collisions. Since 2006, Placerville has seen only 14 injury-related bicycle collisions while it has seen 38 injury-related pedestrian/vehicle crashes.
In Placerville’s pedestrian accidents, 2 pedestrians lost their lives in 2 different accidents and 42 people received injuries ranging from severe to minor in 36 accidents. In contrast, no bicyclist collisions involved fatalities and only 14 individuals received traumatic injuries.
Accident Locations
However, according to UC Berkeley research, none of these pedestrian accidents have happened on Placerville drive. The most common areas for pedestrian injury auto accidents in Placerville over the last 10 years have been:
~ The junction of Highway 50 and Main Street
~ Highway 50 and Bedford Avenue
~ Broadway Street between Carson Road and Schnell School Road
Also, the only area with repeated bicycle accidents in the city is the area near the intersection of Placerville Drive and Pierroz Road.
More Articles from Ed Smith, Car Accident Lawyer in Placerville:
Placerville Car Accident Lawyer & Personal Injury Attorney
I’m Ed Smith, a Placerville car accident lawyer. Both pedestrians and bicycle crashes can be devastating. If you’ve been in any kind of vehicle accident, call me for friendly, free advice. I’m available at (530) 392-9400, my toll-free phone line, (800) 404-5400, and AutoAccident.com.
For over 35 years, I’ve helped the people of Placerville with receiving the recompense they rightly deserve for damages related to wrongful death and personal injury.
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