KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Friends and family of Wyatt Savaikie, a 14-year-old boy who was struck and killed at a Saugus intersection, urged the Santa Clarita City Council Tuesday evening to take action to improve safety on Bouquet Canyon Road.
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“(Wyatt’s) sweet, young voice has been forever silenced in one senseless and preventable accident,” said Teresa Savaikie, Wyatt’s mother. “He would not want them or anyone else to suffer such a terrible loss… We need a comprehensive plan, we need to consider all options including reducing speed limits and substantially increasing ticket amounts for speeding and red light drivers.”
Photo of Wyatt Savaikie, Facebook.
Wyatt was struck and killed at the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Road and Seco Canyon Road on July 16, 2015 as he was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk.
Related: Service Held For Wyatt Savaikie, Remembered As A “Gentle Giant”
Pedestrians saw an increase in fatalities within the United States in 2013, totaling 4,735 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin recognized that “we have had problems” and the city is doing “as much as we can from a law enforcement standpoint.”
“The Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Department has partnered with the city of Santa Clarita to help make our roadways safer,” said Shirley Miller, public information officer for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “Together, we are increasing our traffic safety enforcement, engineering and education in an effort to improve safety on our roadways.”
Related: New Traffic Enforcement Tool Installed At Seven Intersections
Striplin said law enforcement has been stepped up in several different intersections because, “we know that there are problems… It does come down to behavior and drivers changing their behavior.”
Get live news updates about Santa Clarita by following KHTS on Facebook and KHTS on TwitterMore than a third of drivers, approximately 36 percent, admitted to running red lights, however 55 percent say it is a serious threat and 73 percent say it is completely unacceptable, according to DriveFocusLive, a campaign between the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the city of Santa Clarita, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Nearly half of drivers, approximately 44 percent, report speeding, however 65 percent say it is unacceptable, according to the campaign.
More than a quarter, approximately 27 percent, of drivers report typing or sending a text or email, however 79 percent of drivers say it is a very serious threat to safety and 84 percent say it is completely unacceptable, according to the website.
Tyler Day, a friend of Wyatt, also spoke to the city council, saying “there are too many drivers on their phones, distracted by texting and calling.”
Related: Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputies Conduct Vehicle, Pedestrian Traffic Enforcement Operations
To do your part by being a responsible driver, remember to stay within the posted speed limits, don’t text and drive, be focused on driving while behind the wheel, don’t drive if you are sleepy and encourage others to drive safely.
Two other teenagers have also been killed in traffic related incidents on Bouquet Canyon Road, including Elena L. Kramer, 19, of Leona Valley, and Christopher James Rodriguez, 16, of Palmdale.
Kramer was killed on Jan. 4, 2016 when her car hit an oak tree, south of Spunky Canyon Road, and plunged 20 feet down a ravine.
Rodriguez was also killed when the vehicle he was in hit a tree on Aug. 22, 2015, close to where Kramer died.
“For those of us that live with this pain, these losses, the answer is simply not one more,” said Savaikie.
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None of that will do anything to make stupid people less stupid. Again today, I was driving down Newhall Ranch Road when a driver came out of a mall parking lot and just pulled out right in front of me, didn’t even look to the left where I was coming at 50 MPH. This has happened so many times where people just pull out in front of me and I have to apply my brakes. I was even hit by one who was looking the other way. As the saying goes, you can’t fix stupid!
I live off of Bouquet Canyon and I have yet to see any continued enforcement by the Sheriffs Department on any of the streets where people have died or have injured due to speeding drivers. Let alone enforcement of any traffic laws. I see people everyday speeding not just on Bouquet but on any major street up here in the valley. People don’t use turn signals as required by law and the Sheriffs need to set an example by using their turn signals and setting examples by staying off their cell phones which I see all the time.
If people see the Sheriffs not following the law that they are suppose to enforce they figure why should they follow the law….
AS a parent I cannot even think how Wyatt Savaikie’s family is dealing with his passing.
However to make the Bouquet and Seco intersection safer would mean a great deal to us all.
Not one more child/person should be lost on this road!!!
Santa Clarita STEP up and take charge of this problem right away.
Thank you reporting this story. It is so important that we as a city implement safety. I only wish I had realized how deadly our roads were to pedestrians. In a growing city we should no better, we should have have made our streets and roadways safe for all that use it, especially in a family oriented city.. Yet after our son Wyatt lost his life to a senseless, senseless accident, it took very little research for me to conclude that our streets and roadways are not safe for bicyclists nor any pedestrian when they are hit. Freeways were built for vehicles, we do not place crosswalks on freeways and yet our community streets with near freeway speed limits. Streets are built for people not just cars, they are built for all of us that need to cross these streets getting to school, getting to parks, stores, work, etc., Our speed limits of 40, 45, 50 are not survivable. Getting hit at 40 miles an hour 85 percent of the pedestrians will lose their lives. If I was able to find these established and agreed upon engineering statistics, our city no doubt know them as well. So how can we as parent have peace of mind when our youth is out crossing these streets when we know these facts? To make matters even more dangerous is the fact that many drivers often exceed these limits. We are trying to encourage our children and other citizens to walk or bike to school, work, etc., in order to reduce traffic, reduce air pollution and encourage healthy lifestyles. I believe in my mind and in my heart we really need to reconsider promoting our community from walking along streets and roadways until we have made significant changes that address speed limits that most certainly result n death when it comes down to vehicle verses pedestrian accidents. With a growing population, knowing these facts I have to wonder how many more deaths are acceptable before we take this seriously. The question is not when the next distracted driver will it someone at our posted speed limits but when. We cannot change some peoples behavior, unfortunately. So it my belief, as a parent that has lost her child that we owe it to our community to make our streets safe for all people. Looking back at the ried-light camera history Bouquet and Seco, month after month, year after year had the highest violations then any other intersection with these cameras up. My son was hit a few months after their removal. I must take a moment and thank Council members Mclean and West because they voted against the removal of the red-light cameras due to their concerns about human safety. If only, I sit here daily wondering, if only they had not removed those cameras, if only, Wyatt would be home, alive, attending high school, going to football games, school dances, learning how to drive, proms, graduation, college, marry and have his own family one day. Our city had all the information I had and a whole lot more, they removed the cameras and shortly thereafter the roadway became a free for all once again. If only that had figured out how to mitigate for the removal of the cameras before they removed them, installed new traffic calming measures, increased law enforcement monitoring BEFORE they removed the cameras. We cannot change some people, so we as a society must accept that we require laws, regulations and Enforcement for all of those that use these roads. It is awful, awful to wake up each day without our son. No other family should ever have to lose their child or loved one by such a tragic and senseless act. Until changes are made that protect pedestrians I hope you will all ask you children to find a way to get to and from where they are going without crossing any of these roadways that permit these speed limits. If I had known, what I now know I would have done everything and anything to keep Wyatt from crossing that street. We love and oh how we miss him.