A woman was hit by a car in a pedestrian crosswalk on Santa Monica Boulevard near Palm this afternoon.
Sgt. Connie Delgado of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said the woman was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She said deputies have identified the driver of the car that hit the woman but it is not yet clear whether charges have been filed.
Marta Knittel, one of the owners of the Yogurt Stop, which is located on Santa Monica Boulevard near the crosswalk, heard the crash and ran out to observe the woman lying in the street. Knittel told WEHOville that she has seen a number of near misses in that crosswalk. In an email to WeHo City Council members, she described the incident in some detail:
“Today I witnessed a woman appearing to be lifeless on the ground. A woman with both her wrists broken. A woman with blood coming out of head. A woman, when she started to ‘come to’, moaning and trying to get up although her body wouldn’t allow her to. This was preceded by an evil sound of cars colliding. At least I thought it was. But when I ran outside, my knees buckled seeing a lifeless woman lying on the ground.
“This poor woman was hit while in the crosswalk in front of Yogurt Stop. She was hit so hard she flew over 20 feet out of the crosswalk. I hope and pray she will be okay. If she is she will have a hard and long recovery. ”
On a personal note, I don’t know how much more of this I can witness. I have seen it time and time again. When I first opened Yogurt Stop, I was sitting at Tango Grill and the identical accident happened where a man was hit in the crosswalk and he flew over 20 feet. ”
The death in August 2014 of Clinton Bounds, who was hit by a car while crossing Santa Monica Boulevard at night near the intersection with Hancock Avenue (although not in a crosswalk), sparked an outcry among local residents for City Hall to improve crosswalk safety. The result is a program, still in progress, to install signs calling out crosswalks to motorists, install flashing lights near them and eventually to install actual stoplights that will be coordinated with those at vehicle intersections.
A recent analysis by WeHo by the Numbers showed a 38% reduction in crosswalk accidents since the city began its safety program. The biggest reduction, 76%, was at mid-block crosswalks with the new in-street signs. Those crosswalks had 13% of the collisions before the signs were installed and only 5% afterward.
Is there an update on the woman who was hit? Did she survive? Was the driver cited, arrested?! Isn’t it against the law for the passenger to flee the scene before giving her witness statement (considering she was the passenger of the car that hit the woman)?! WEHOville, do you generally do updates on stories like this?
The driver of the car was cited for hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Unfortunately the Sheriff’s Station can’t provide information about the woman who was hit because of federal privacy laws.
Ask not what you can do for your country but what you can do for yourself. Featheryournest LLC
And there had been opportunity to use WeHo as a platform by other service groups, interests and events. It’s like a non profit when all the board members sitting at the table look stunned when someone asks how much is the check we are about to cut for the charity after we have partied and served ourselves with expensive benefits? Window dressing and image is THE most important thing in our current culture. And everyone calls themselves a philanthropist.
WeHo may have been founded for all the right reasons but somewhere along the way it became bait and switch. Someone, with a keen sense of economics and finance saw a keen opportunity to monetize the situation and either didn’t realize or didn’t care who or what the collateral damage would be. It not a community for the community than who is it for?
@Woody McBreairty McBreairty – I agree with you entirely. This is a major problem in search of a simple solution & it has been going on for far too long. This council is so preoccupied with their own personal ambitions & public brawls that they can’t see the forest for the trees. I realize there are only community people to draw from for the council, but they are just simply laymen repeating the same old excuses on different days in different ways. They are sometimes silent & provide no answers because they have none & not really up to the… Read more »
I walk extensively since I don’t have a car. I am incredibly careful when crossing: no phone use, only cross with walk sign after looking to see if cars are still coming, mostly cross at intersections rather than mid-block, if there’s the slightest concern about a driver, I stay on the sidewalk. This is true for SMB as well as side streets. On the side streets leading to my home, it’s common for me to wait for 8-10 cars to turn before I cross, because none of the drivers looks at the sidewalk – their eyes are focused on other… Read more »
Well, I have said it 100 times- those median cross walks should just be eliminated. I VALUE my life and use the cross walks with the lights where every car is stopped . Its not far to walk from Palm to San Vicente! People have been walking much further before cars were in vented.
I for one believe those signs between traffic lanes are more of a hazard than a effective safety measure on Santa Monica Bl. One’s attention is drawn to them and how to get around them safely without damaging ones vehicle instead of watching for pedestrians attempting to cross that fast moving street. And while they are supposed to be upright many are leaning into a traffic lane which now makes them a hazard. Also I have noted large vehicles such as buses seem to have a difficult time passing them. As a former RTD/MTA employee who at one time did… Read more »
It’s sad to see victim shaming is such an entrenched opinion that so many people hold.
A person hit mid crosswalk is no more at fault for being struck by a driver, than a person dressed sexually provocatively is for being raped.
Either do away with these stupid cross-walks or install proper traffic lights. I drive SMB on a daily basis and I can’t tell you how many times I have seen drivers ignore the signs. Some pedestrians just assume that the driver will stop. However, some out-of-town driver come from states where these type of crossings are not mandatory for drivers to stop.
Regardless of whatever warning signals are installed, if there are no consequences for breaking the rules these horrific accidents will continue happening. Why should drivers or pedestrians follow the laws if the city has zero intention of enforcing them?
First – prayers and blessings for both parties involved in likely one of if not the worst day of their lives.
Second, I know it’s rather heretical to hold these views but hold them I do:
– we need not more but fewer crosswalks
– not less but more jaywalking ticketing
– and much more walking the extra half block or block to a major intersections to cross