A resident in the San Carlos neighborhood requested traffic safety measures more than a year ago.

SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego will install stop signs and reduce the speed limit at a San Carlos intersection where 11-year-old Andrew Olsen was killed on Monday, the city announced Thursday.

Olsen was struck by a car while crossing Jackson Drive at Lake Baydin Avenue on his way to Pershing Middle School. His two sisters were also injured in the incident. The driver, a 37-year-old who remained at the scene and performed CPR on the boy, told police he was blinded by the early morning sun. Olsen was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital.

The city posted notices Thursday stating that stop signs will be installed within two weeks at the site. The speed limit on Jackson Drive will be reduced to 35 miles per hour from 40 MPH, and the city plans to reduce the number of traffic lanes to one in each direction.

Residents of the San Carlos neighborhood had been requesting traffic safety improvements at the intersection for more than a year before Monday’s fatal incident.

“It is so dangerous. It’s a blind hill. Cars coming up are going way too fast. They can’t see when kids are crossing,” said Chad Tuller, a neighbor.

Neighbor Shannon Smith had filed multiple requests with the city last year asking for crosswalks to be installed and the speed limit reduced due to the risk to children. However, the city closed out those requests, saying the intersection met city standards.

“If the city had just listened and sent engineers out here at any point in time over the year and a half that I have been asking them, the tragic events which unfolded on Monday could easily have been prevented,” said Shannon Smith.

Smith said he witnessed a 12 or 13-year-old girl stranded on the median of Jackson Drive about a year ago, which reinforced his safety concerns.

The city stated in an email that “there has never been a fatal or severe injury crash at this intersection, and of the crashes that have occurred at or near this intersection in the past 10 years, none have involved pedestrians.” However, city records reviewed by CBS 8 show eight traffic collisions over the past decade within one block of the intersection, and one pedestrian was hit and injured in 2016 on Jackson Drive, two blocks from where Olsen was killed.

The driver was not charged in connection with Olsen’s death.

Below is the city’s full statement to CBS 8:

The City of San Diego is installing an all-way stop at the intersection of Jackson Drive and Badin Lake Avenue and we expect the work to be completed no later than Friday, Oct. 31. That intersection currently has no stop signs or crosswalk and Jackson Drive has four lanes of traffic with a 40 mph speed limit. 

In addition to installing a new all-way stop at the intersection, there are several traffic safety improvements being implemented this fiscal year along this corridor.  The Transportation Department plans to reduce the number of lanes on Jackson Drive from four to two lanes between Lake Shore Drive and Lake Murray Boulevard. The speed limit will also be reduced to 35 mph on Jackson Drive between Cowles Mountain and Lake Murray boulevards. Both improvements are expected to significantly slow traffic on the street.

The below background information includes details on previous evaluations of this location as well as the criteria we use to determine the installation of stop signs and crosswalks. 

There have been two recent evaluations of this intersection in response to public requests. The Department evaluated the intersection for an all-way stop in March 2024, and this intersection did not meet the Council Policy criteria required for an all-way stop. The City also evaluated the intersection for a crosswalk in November 2024, and it was determined this intersection did not meet the required criteria for a crosswalk.

In reviewing over 10 years of data, there has never been a fatal or severe injury crash at this intersection, and it has never been on the City’s High Crash Location list. Of the crashes that have occurred at or near this intersection in the past 10 years, none have involved pedestrians.

Council Policies and Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)

The City has two City Council policies which establish the criteria for the installation of stop signs and crosswalks. Both Council policies incorporate guidance from the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which establishes uniform standards and specifications for all traffic control devices in California.

Council Policy 200-07 establishes the required criteria for the installation of a marked crosswalk, which is based on a point system. Basic criteria must be met prior to implementing the point system. When this location was evaluated in November 2024, the basic pedestrian volume criteria was not met, and the need for a crosswalk was not further evaluated. It is important to note that even if the points were met, a standard continental crosswalk would not have been appropriate at this location given the posted speed limit on this road. Additional measures, such as a pedestrian hybrid beacon, would have been required to meet the policy for a marked crosswalk.

Council Policy 200-08 establishes the required criteria for the installation of an all-way stop. All-way stops are evaluated against established criteria with a point system. Criteria include crash history within the past three years; special conditions such as proximity to schools, fire stations, parks, and libraries; the number of vehicles entering the intersection during peak hours; and the number of pedestrians crossing the street during peak hours. Major roads like Jackson Drive are required to score at least 25 points to qualify for an all-way stop. Our evaluation in March 2024 showed this intersection scored only 10 points, with low crash history, traffic, and pedestrian volumes.

The Transportation Department followed all guidance within the City’s Council policies and the MUTCD when completing our evaluations for stop signs and crosswalks at this intersection in 2024.

The Department recently completed a Systemic Safety Analysis which reviewed 10 years of fatal crash history and identified similar characteristics at intersections with a history of fatal crashes. This data was used to identify nearly 488 intersections with those similar characteristics, which may have an elevated risk of fatal crashes. The intersection at Jackson Drive and Lake Badin Avenue was identified as one of the 488 intersections. The department is currently evaluating all 488 intersections for improvements and will be submitting budget requests for those improvements as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.