Have you witnessed crazy driving in Modesto? How to take action

One version of a parent’s worst nightmare happened three weeks ago, still early in the new school year, right here in Modesto.

Imagine sending your young children off to school on foot in the morning with their doting grandmother. Imagine learning that a car plowed into them as they traversed busy Orangeburg Avenue in a crosswalk. Imagine going these three weeks without hearing the voice of your 8-year-old daughter because she’s in a coma.

It’s unthinkable. But it is someone’s reality.

There is much we don’t know about this tragedy, such as whether the 21-year-old driver was distracted. Although it’s been three weeks, police have not concluded their investigation or made a recommendation to the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office on whether he should be prosecuted.

Among the things we do know:

• The boy was unhurt, thankfully.
• The grandmother was taken to a Modesto hospital with a broken leg. Modesto City Schools officials are respecting the family’s request for privacy, and she won’t be named in this editorial.
• Pedestrians at an intersection always have the right of way. Meaning, drivers must yield.

Because other factors are unknown, and the accident remains under investigation, it’s unwise to argue for this specific remedy or that.

An appeal to drivers to slow down, however — especially around schools, and especially around the times kids head to or from — is in order.

Modesto police receive a fair number of complaints about drivers each fall, Chief Brandon Gillespie said, often involving unnecessary speed near schools.

“It’s just tragic to have an 8-year-old hit on her way to school,” with life-changing results, the chief said. “If there is something we can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again, we need to do it.”

No vehicle by law can exceed 25 mph in school zones in California. Some limits near schools have been reduced to 15 mph, Gillespie said, wondering out loud if more in Modesto should try it.

“I want us to be known as a community that’s going to protect children and families enjoying the outdoors,” Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen said in a recent interview. She has pushed for student safety, she said, since her days as a board member in the Modesto district.

Just after this tragedy, police sent extra officers to patrol around 16 Modesto schools. They issued 84 citations that day.

That is an indication that more can be done to keep our school-bound children safe. So let’s do it.

Slow down, Modesto

Have you witnessed unsafe driving, especially the kind that might endanger kids?

Do you have ideas for keeping them safe? Like more crossing guards, more crosswalks with blinking lights, more effective patrolling, more 15 mph zones? Or something else?

Call the Modesto police traffic unit at 209-572-9592 (911 for emergencies), or file an online police report. Contact your nearest school or parents group, or both. Write a letter to the editor; email to letters@modbee.com. Study the district’s “Driving children to school” webpage, which specifically warns against double parking and dropping children off in the middle of the street.

Most of all, stay alert. Never text behind the wheel. Always yield to pedestrians.

And please, slow down.

This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.