Family buries 5-year-old Brayan Trejo as city considers safer
signal at intersection where he died
Gilroy – On the day 5-year-old Brayan Trejo was buried, city engineers said they are studying the possibility of installing a safer traffic signal at the intersection where the boy was hit by a truck and killed Tuesday.
The intersection of 10th and Church streets ranks 13th on the city’s list of 50 most dangerous crossroads, according to a February 2005 traffic study. Of the 23 collisions that took place at the intersection between 2000 and 2003, only one involved a pedestrian and none led to a fatality. Police could not provide accident statistics for the last three years.
Trejo and his 13-year-old brother, Jesus, had the right of way as they headed south across 10th Street Tuesday afternoon. A truck coming south from Church Street turned left and struck the young boy as he rode a scooter.
Family, friends and neighbors devastated by the accident immediately began calling for the city to install a left-turn signal at the intersection. Mourners staged a memorial ceremony Wednesday and covered the southeast corner of the intersection with flowers and several signs calling for a new signal.
The city is responding by starting an engineering study that could lay the groundwork for the new light. Such studies involve measuring the volume of traffic at different times and identifying funds in the city budget to cover the cost of a new signal, City Transportation Engineer Don Dey said.
“Clearly this accident and its magnitude prompted this background study,” he said. “Whether changes to this signal would have prevented this accident or future accidents is unknown.”
If one is approved, Dey said the earliest residents can expect installation is July 2008.
“That’s the least the city can do to protect other lives,” said Trejo’s father Jesus Trejo Mendoza. “It was (my family) today and I don’t want somebody else to be tomorrow.”
The possibility of a lengthy traffic study preventing quick fix at the intersection did not sit well with Trejo’s cousin Francisco Mendoza.
“We don’t need another study. We know that it’s dangerous,” he said. “Some officials are saying the city doesn’t have a budget to do that. Why is it there is money for other things like the downtown? The safety of the people should be a priority, and then let’s beautify the city. Right now the priorities are not ranked right.”
Officials have known for years that the intersection is among the most dangerous in the city, Councilman Dion Bracco said.
“It’s right there in the heart of town and you’ve got the high school and Glen View Elementary School,” he said. “During the school year there’s a whole bunch of kids crossing those streets.”
Bracco said that efforts to create a new traffic signal at the intersection should move to the top of Gilroy’s list of budget priorities.
Councilman Peter Arellano said the city needs to make intersection upgrades throughout Gilroy a priority. He pointed to the 10th Street bridge that passes over U.S. Highway 101 as a major concern. That passover, heavily trafficked by residents headed for shopping centers in east Gilroy or leaving town on weekends, ranked 16th on the list of most dangerous intersections. The site had two fewer accidents during the study period than the intersection of Church and 10th streets, though one of them resulted in a death.
“If we’re finding money to fix the downtown,” Arellano said, “why are we not finding money and dipping into our savings to make our streets safer for everyone?”
Police said Robertina Franco of Gilroy was the driver of the silver Dodge Ram truck that struck and killed the child, and that she was cooperative and released at the scene. They are currently investigating the accident and will forward the case to the District Attorney’s Office once the investigation is complete.
Staff Writer Rachelle Gines contributed to this story.
