Another pedestrian was struck and killed in Long Beach last wee, adding to what is shaping up to be one of the deadliest years on record for people on foot.<\/p>\n
Now, the city is one step closer to launching a pilot program officials hope will change that: speed cameras placed along some of Long Beach\u2019s most dangerous streets.<\/p>\n
The Long Beach City Council is expected to vote this week on funding a five-year \u201cSpeed Safety System\u201d pilot that would install 18 speed cameras citywide, including at high-risk intersections like Ocean Boulevard and Pacific Avenue.<\/p>\n
Advocates who have lost loved ones to traffic violence say the cameras can\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who lives around here knows \u2014 if you have little kids, don\u2019t let them walk around here,\u201d said Samantha Acosta, a Long Beach resident who lives near Anaheim Boulevard, one of the streets slated for a camera.<\/p>\n
Intersections on Anaheim, Artesia, PCH, 2nd, 7th, Atlantic, Long Beach, Ocean and Willow Boulevard are considered a high-priority corridor, where speeding has contributed to serious and fatal crashes. Nine other sites include Shoreline, Alamitos\/Oceans, Bellflower, Cherry Avenue and Santa Fe Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A city map identifies 18 locations where speeding has been persistent \u2014 and where lives have already been lost.<\/p>\n
For \u201cGrandma Beverly,\u201d those losses are personal.<\/p>\n
She lost her 5-year-old grandson in a pedestrian crash years ago and later co-founded SoCal Families for Safe Streets. A former truck driver, she believes speed cameras will change driver behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeed cameras will work like red-light cameras,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll get used to them being there, and you\u2019re not going to do the thing that breaks the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lili Trujillo Packet, founder of Street Racing Kills, agrees. She lost her 16-year-old daughter to street racing and says accountability is long overdue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think the camera will deter and save some lives,\u201d Trujillo Packet said.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed program \u2014 modeled after systems already in use in San Francisco \u2014 vehicle owners would receive citations ranging from $50 to $500, depending on how far over the speed limit they\u2019re driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they get their first ticket,\u201d Trujillo Packet said, \u201cThey\u2019ll know there are cameras \u2014 and they\u2019ll avoid them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the hope shared by advocates who are mourning a growing toll. More than 50 pedestrians have been killed in Long Beach this year, the highest number in a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cNinety-five percent or more are preventable,\u201d Grandma Beverly said. \u201cCompletely preventable, when you look into the actual crash.\u201d<\/p>\n
She points to speeding and distracted driving \u2014 behaviors she believes the cameras can curb.<\/p>\n
If approved, the city says the 18 speed cameras could be installed and operational next year.<\/p>\n
For families who\u2019ve already lost loved ones, the vote is about more than enforcement \u2014 it\u2019s about preventing the next empty chair at the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another pedestrian was struck and killed in Long Beach last wee, adding to what is shaping up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-96142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}