Community still searching for answers after 5 children hit in crosswalk
By BRADY HALBLEIB
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POLLOCK PINES, California (KOVR) — The Pollock Pines community still searching for answers after five children were hit in a crosswalk last week.
The California Highway Patrol hosted a community discussion Monday night to address concerns about the road where it happened.
Some residents were calling for several changes to make Pony Express Trail safer. Among those proposed changes were more crosswalk signals — there are none where the children were hit.
“Why aren’t there flashing lights stating there’s a crosswalk,” said Pollock Pines resident Dawn Shanoff.
Shanoff was among the more than 100 neighbors there who say people drive too fast on Pony Express Trail, calling on law enforcement to help.
“I think that’s a part of our problem,” Shanoff said. “We just don’t have enough guys patrolling the area.”
Placerville CHP was joined by the Department of Transportation, which fielded most of the questions Monday night. The department said a five-year project that started in 2018 will address the crosswalk concerns. The project will go to bid in July and construction on a lighted crosswalk through Pony Express Trail could begin as early as next year.
Shanoff said lower speed limits and more stop signs would also be helpful but worries the project won’t happen soon enough.
“I don’t have a lot of faith in our government up here which is unfortunate,” she said.
Others say they’re more optimistic but agree change needs to happen.
“All of us agree we never want to see something like this happen again, and we’re all thankful to have all of the representatives up here to give us as much information as possible,” said Alison Warren, the aunt of Juniper, one of the children who were hit.
Warren said Juniper is still in critical condition but shares some good news.
“The doctor had come in this morning for the first time and used the words ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ as talking about her recovery,” she said.
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