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Sherman Way is deadly, City shares blame with citizens
It's safe to say that the 15 or so mile east-west Sherman Way has been a deadly topic in the news lately.
- On September 16, Daily News reported in an article about deadly Valley streets for pedestrians that "30 people were killed and more than 90 seriously hurt on just two streets - Sherman Way and Vanowen Street." (link not available, the paper doesn't archive their stories online for very long)
- An impatient driver killed himself last weekend speeding merrily along.
- And everyone has been hearing about the terrible incident of two men who got into a road rage race/chase which ended in the death of a 5-year-old boy and critical injuries to the mother and infant sister.
For the most part, Sherman Way is a wide sprawling main artery for the Valley and all of these deaths and injuries are of human error/stupidity/impatience.
Although, the cases of pedestrian deaths and injuries could be challenged. It is law, that is hardly enforced nor respected by anyone, that cars must yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, which includes unmarked crosswalks at intersections.
21950(a) CVC - Right-of-Way at Crosswalks - The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.
To that, watch how many Metro and DASH buses, police, fire and other city vehicles yield to pedestrians as state law dictates. Do they? I've yet to be given my right when crossing the street in front of these forces. The city and other government agencies must lead by example, but in this regard, they should not be followed.
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