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The Santa Clarita Traffic Safety Plan for 2017 exceeded its projected impact on pedestrian safety in Santa Clarita after a spike in traffic collisions in 2016.
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The City of Santa Clarita and Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station teamed up to form a special committee with a focus on a Traffic Safety Plan for 2017— an organized effort to reduce the number of traffic collisions and pedestrian-involved incidents, according to officials.
The original goal of the Traffic Safety Plan was to see a 5 percent reduction of traffic collisions in 2017 — which resulted in a 10.5 percent decrease, according to a news release.
The plan also set out to reduce pedestrian-involved accidents by 20 percent, but surprisingly, projections nearly doubled with pedestrian accidents seeing a 42 percent decrease – resulting in zero reported pedestrian fatalities in 2017, the news release added.
“These impressive results demonstrate the resolve of your City Council and Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Deputies to make our city streets as safe as possible for all that travel on them,” Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste said.
Within the last year, officials have been working to dedicate a significant amount of public resources to reducing traffic situations in problematic areas around Santa Clarita, SCV Sheriff’s Traffic Sergeant Scott Shoemaker said.
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“We’ve identified the top ten roadways that have a high number of traffic collisions.” Shoemaker said.
In the last year, the city approved a contract for one additional motor deputy and a sergeant — which contributed to a 45 percent increase in citations than the previous year, according to the news release.
“When drivers see one of our motor deputies at intersections or monitoring speeds on busy stretches of roads, they instinctively drive safer,” Shoemaker said. “That means less speeding, less distraction and less reckless driving. Which in turn, means fewer accidents on our City streets.”
While 2016 saw 24 pedestrian-involved incidents with seven of them being fatal, 2017 concluded with only 14 incidents, none of which resulted in the loss of a life, the news release said.
The City is also assessing how to make improvements to roadways and signage to increase driver and pedestrian traffic safety, according to City of Santa Clarita Communications Director, Carrie Lujan.
One such improvement is the addition of yield to pedestrian blank out signs at several busy intersections, such as McBean Parkway and Town Center Drive, Luhan added.
“The City has also completed Safe Routes to School projects at the majority of our elementary schools and will be extending this effort to our Junior High and High Schools over the next several years.” Luhan said. “These projects provide for enhanced pedestrian crossing, improved signage and marking, promoting safe cycling and pedestrian access.”
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