As traffic deaths in Modesto outpace homicides, woman grieves loss of her brother
Ticka Simon-Rossetto had just arrived home after visiting with her older brother when the manager of his apartment complex called her.
Simon-Rossetto said she thought maybe her brother had fallen on the stairs. His home was on the second floor at the Spartan Manor Senior Apartments on Orangeburg Avenue between McHenry and Sunrise avenues.
The news was much worse.
“Gracie (the manager) said, ‘Ticka you have to come to the apartments right away. Your brother has been hit (by a car),’” Simon-Rossetto said. “I was completely shocked. I just left there 10 minutes ago. I was having difficulty processing everything.”
William Simon was the 19th person to die in a Modesto traffic accident in 2022. There has been one more traffic fatality since then, raising the death toll to 20. Police say 22 people died in traffic accidents in 2021. Numbers for previous years were not immediately available.
By comparison, Modesto has had 10 homicides so far this year and had 12 for all of last year.
The traffic deaths come as Modesto has consistently ranked among the worst for traffic crashes among similar-size California cities in recent years. The California Office of Traffic Safety in December issued its most recent rankings for 2020. Modesto was second worst among 61 peer cities.
Modesto police say seven pedestrians and four bicyclists are among the 20 people killed in this year’s fatal crashes. Four of the 20 traffic crashes involved DUI drivers.
“It’s very concerning to me,” Chief of Police Brandon Gillespie said. “We’ve consistently had more fatal accidents in our city than homicides.”
He said that over the last several years, it has not been uncommon for traffic fatalities to at least equal homicides.
Gillespie said that improving traffic safety is one of his top priorities and that his department has taken measures — and is looking at more — to do just that. Unfilled positions have made the job difficult, though.
Gillespie said the Police Department has about 20 vacancies among its 210 sworn officer positions — from the chief himself to the newest recruit in the police academy — as well as seven positions that have been frozen as a cost-saving measure. Gillespie said he expects the seven positions will stay frozen in the city’s current budget year, which ends June 30.
Modesto has faced the same challenges in recent years that other law enforcement agencies across the country have faced in hiring and keeping officers.
Gillespie said the rankings don’t surprise him and reflect what he experiences as someone who lives and works in Modesto. “I see it whether I’m on duty or off duty,” he said, “driving home in an unmarked car and people pass me at 60 mph in the center lane. Unfortunately, it’s driving behavior that has become too common.”
He said it has not helped that the Police Department has far fewer traffic safety officers because of budget cuts since the Great Recession of more than a dozen years ago. The Office of Traffic Safety says three keys for traffic safety are enforcement, public education and road design.
Gillespie said while it is important for drivers to obey the rules of the road, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists also have to do their part. That can include wearing bright and-or reflective clothing at night and crossing the street at crosswalks.
Birthday surprise for brother
Modesto police say a hit-and-run driver struck Simon on Orangeburg at Nelson Avenue about 7:15 p.m. Dec. 2. Spartan Manor sits at the southwest corner of the intersection.
Gillespie said investigators determined that Simon was in the crosswalk when he was hit. The chief declined to say more because the investigation is ongoing. A police spokesman has said the vehicle that struck him was a dark-colored SUV or truck traveling west on Orangeburg.
Simon-Rossetto said she was visiting her brother at his apartment for an early celebration of his birthday. He would have turned 65 the next day.
She had made her brother some of his favorite foods: baked salmon; twice-baked potatoes with cream cheese, chives and green onions; and broccoli with tomatoes and mushrooms. She also brought some store-bought Christmas cookies.
“I surprised him the day before his birthday with his favorite meal,” she said. “I made a lot of his favorite foods. He loves seafood.”
Simon-Rossetto said her brother was compassionate, loving and a devout Christian. He attended the Modesto Free Will Baptist Church, which is near Spartan Manor. She said he was a talented artist and sketched and drew landscapes and nature scenes.
He also could be stubborn about his routines. For instance, Simon-Rossetto said, her brother would not let anyone or anything distract him from his morning devotions.
She said her brother never married and for many years had been the early childhood development coordinator for the Boys & Girls Club in Salinas.
Residents are calling the city
She said he moved to Modesto about four years ago and had been living at Spartan Manor for about two years. Simon-Rossetto, who is a Modesto resident, said her brother was one of six children and the only boy. They were raised in Salinas.
Spartan Manor property manager Gracie Christmas said she and some of the tenants have been calling the city since Simon’s death, asking it to improve the crosswalk where Simon was hit.
“I want something that makes it safer,” Christmas said, “something that will make it safer for the elderly residents. Not just the ones in my community, but in general.”
She said that could include flashing yellow lights that pedestrians activate to alert drivers they are about to cross the street. Christmas said city staff have returned the phone calls and said upgrading the intersection is expensive. She said residents have called the city before and gotten the same response.
“They (drivers) are going way faster than the speed limit,” Christmas said. “My window office faces Orangeburg, and it’s crazy. They (city staff) need to do something to slow down the traffic.”
There are yellow pedestrian safety signs with small lights along the edges at each side of the crosswalk, but the buttons to activate them are missing. Christmas said the signs have not worked in the three years she has been the Spartan Manor manager. But there are two working streetlights at the intersection.
A city spokeswoman said Modesto would not comment while the hit-and-run remains under investigation.
Christmas said Simon is the first resident during her time as the complex’s manager to be injured or killed by a driver. The complex has 60 one-bedroom apartments and about 80 residents. “He was very mild-mannered, quiet, always offering his blessing to everyone,” she said. “He was just a nice and kind man.”
She said about two dozen residents came out when Simon was hit, many of them crying as they watched police investigate the hit-and-run and as they comforted Simon’s sister. Christmas said she heard that about a dozen residents turned out days later on a very cold night for a vigil for Simon.
Modesto will have more money for traffic enforcement after voters approved Measure H — a 1% sales tax increase — in November. The tax takes effect April 1 and is expected to bring in $39 million annually. The additional revenue is for such services as cleaner and safer parks, faster 911 response times, reducing blight and improving public safety, including traffic enforcement.
The City Council is expected to start discussing how to spend Measure H within a couple of months. That is expected to include department heads presenting proposals to the council.
Return of red light cameras?
Gillespie said his department’s proposal could include bringing back cameras that capture drivers running red lights. He said the cameras would be at high-collision intersections, such as Briggsmore and McHenry avenues and Sisk Road and Briggsmore. He said his department is continuing to research whether it makes sense to bring back the cameras.
It’s been more than eight years since Modesto last had red-light cameras, and it would take a City Council vote to bring them back.
The cameras were turned off over such concerns as whether the Police Department had the staffing to review the photos and whether the cameras were cost-neutral, meaning their operations were not subsidized by revenue from other traffic citations.
Gillespie said his department this summer brought back its DUI officer by assigning a patrol officer to the job. He said the position had been vacant for several years. The DUI officer works evenings and patrols areas where impaired drivers are likely to be found. Gillespie said that within a year, he hopes to assign a second patrol officer to full-time duties as a DUI officer.
He said the department’s traffic safety unit this year started issuing warrants to impound the cars of drivers suspected of street racing and sideshows. The vehicles are held for 30 days, and the drivers need to pay storage and impound fees to claim their vehicles. (The officers write the warrants, and a judge reviews and signs them.)
Gillespie said there have been two deaths this year in Modesto because of street racing. He believes two warrants have been issued this year.
He said the traffic safety unit also has used OTS grant money to conduct four pedestrian safety operations this year in which a plainclothes officer or other decoy attempts to cross the street. Drivers who don’t stop are ticketed. Gillespie said more than 70 drivers have been ticketed in these operations.
Doubling traffic safety unit
Gillespie wants to increase the traffic safety unit from four to eight officers. (The unit is overseen by a sergeant.) The unit had 21 officers before the Great Recession, according to the city manager. It has been downsized over the years to help balance the city budget. The department has lost 77 officer positions since the Great Recession.
But Gillespie emphasized this is all based upon the Police Department filling its vacant positions. He said he has 75 patrol officers and wants to get that number to at least 85, with 90 being ideal. Gillespie said once that is done, he can look to hire more officers to increase the traffic safety unit and add a second DUI officer.
He said the department is making slow but steady progress in filling vacancies. The department had about two dozen vacancies over the summer. Gillespie said Measure H’s passage will help because it lets the city offer competitive compensation, lets departments do more and provides more opportunities for employees. He said it also lets prospective employees know the city’s financial future is solid.
While acknowledging that hiring and keeping officers has been an issue for the department for about a decade, Gillespie said his hope is that when the city’s current budget year ends June 30, his department will have filled nearly all of its vacancies.
Gillespie — who has been with the department for 21 years and rose through the ranks before being named chief in August 2021 — said the MPD is working on a strategy on how to fill the vacancies. He declined to say more at this time.
Once the department ramps up its staffing, the chief said, it can add the second DUI officer and increase the traffic safety unit. He said he expects both would not happen until the end of 2023.
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
