Some Ike students want safer crossings along 40th Avenue

'Whoa! Speed!"

Rachel Katz exclaims these words on a recent morning as she crosses 40th Avenue on her way to school.

The 16-year-old walks most mornings to Eisenhower High School, where she's a sophomore. She says there's usually five to seven students waiting to cross 40th with her. And sometimes they have to wait nearly 10 minutes for cars to stop for them.

"Very few people stop for pedestrians," says Katz, adding she's been nearly struck on several occasions while attempting to walk across 40th.

The crosswalk at 40th and Webster avenues is known as a danger zone among Ike students. So is the nearby intersection of 40th and Meadow Lane.

Close calls seem to be almost a daily occurrence at both of these intersections, located between Tieton Drive and Nob Hill Boulevard. Some Ike students say they worry for their safety when crossing 40th near their school.

According to the Revised Code of Washington, law 46.61.235:

The operator of an approaching vehicle shall stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian or bicycle to cross the roadway within an unmarked or marked crosswalk when the pedestrian or bicycle is upon or within one lane of the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or onto which it is turning.

And, according to RCW 46.61.261:

The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian or bicycle on a sidewalk.

Students cross 40th to get to and from their homes, school and lunch. And many say they have witnessed near-misses. Although they say they have seen many close calls involving student pedestrians and vehicles, statistics show there have been few actual collisions.

According to the city of Yakima Public Works Department, there have been six collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians or bicyclists from the intersection of Tieton and 40th to the intersection of Nob Hill and 40th -- none of them resulting in fatalities -- since 2005. This includes vehicle vs. vehicle, vehicle vs. pedestrian and vehicle vs. bicyclist.

But the number of collisions isn't the only thing engineers take into account when deciding whether to install a pedestrian overpass or light warning system, according to Joan Davenport, the city's supervising traffic engineer. They also look at the amount of pedestrian traffic, alternate routes pedestrians can take, and the volume of vehicles.

Katz says she sometimes has to wait seven minutes or more in order to safely cross 40th. When cars don't stop like they are supposed to, some students resort to darting across the street through oncoming traffic.

Long waits to cross 40th sometimes result in students being late for class and tardy notices going home to parents. Katz and Stacie Cox, another 16-year-old sophomore at Ike, say they have been late to class due to waiting for vehicles to stop.

"The traffic was so heavy that no one would let me cross, so I sat in the crosswalk for five minutes and didn't get to class on time," Katz says of her experience.

Not only do some cars not stop when students are waiting to cross 40th, some continue to drive through the crosswalk as students are crossing, says Katz, recalling one driver who came to a screeching halt right in front of her at 40th and Webster.

"He almost hit me, and then began to yell at me," she says.

Katz and Cox agree a solution would be installing a pedestrian overpass or light warning system at one of these intersections. So does Vincent Carrillo.

The 17-year-old Eisenhower senior drives down 40th almost every day and says he has witnessed turmoil in the street. It's "just a matter of time" until someone gets seriously hurt, he says. "They need a crossing light or something more."

Ike sophomore class secretary, 15-year-old Megan Kinney, says she, too, has noticed a traffic problem on 40th. Students need more protection, she says.

"It's dangerous, and they could get hit by a car," she says.

There's a lighted crosswalk at Yakima's Robertson Elementary School, located at Lincoln and 28th avenues. This school has only about 500 students. Eisenhower has about 2,000.

"I don't think it's fair," Katz says. "I feel that, with the amount of students we have at our school, we need a light ... there are so many students that use this crosswalk" at Webster and 40th avenues.

Katz says she would like to see a pedestrian overpass installed across 40th, like the one Yakima Valley Community College helped fund in 2001. YVCC -- with help from the state -- built a pedestrian overpass spanning Nob Hill near 16th Avenue.

It cost about $1 million and replaced a bridge that was destroyed in 1996 when a garbage truck's raised hoist struck it. The old bridge, erected in 1972, crashed down, closing Nob Hill for several hours. The newer, 90-foot long overpass features an elevator and stairs at each end.

According to Karen Judge, the director of capital planning at YVCC, the newer bridge is "very user-friendly" and assists people with disabilities, students and staff.

Back at Ike, principal Stacey Locke says she's not aware of any student or parent concerns about the crosswalk at 40th and Webster avenues or the nearby intersection of 40th and Meadow Lane.

"The safety of our Ike community is my No. 1 priority," she says.