Traffic safety enforcement should become a higher priority for
the city and the police department should step up efforts to get
the message to residents
The tragic death of young Brayan Trejo highlights the importance of enforcing traffic laws.
The 5-year-old was properly crossing 10th Street in a marked crosswalk when he was struck and killed by a motorist making a left turn from Church Street. The intersection where this tragic accident occurred is currently 13th on the city’s list of most dangerous intersections.
In the wake of the accident, lots of attention is being paid to this particular intersection, with many calling for a left-turn signal for the intersection. A study to determine the effectiveness of such a signal is under way.
City officials – particularly Chief of Police Gregg Giusiana – should take a bigger-picture view of traffic safety in Gilroy by ensuring that the Gilroy Police Department hires a traffic officer posthaste. The GPD has not had a traffic officer since the previous traffic officer was promoted a year ago.
Not a single GPD officer specializes in traffic enforcement. For at least one officer, traffic enforcement should be a main focus. Someone has to be committed to watching the trends and the problems related to traffic – perhaps parking on some Gilroy streets is permitted too close to intersections, blocking drivers’ views or perhaps speeding is becoming a problem in a particular stretch of road – and be ready to propose solutions.
But most of all, Gilroy residents deserve enforcement of traffic laws.
It needs to be common knowledge that if you violate traffic laws in Gilroy, you’re going to get a ticket. If you speed in Gilroy, you’re going to get a ticket. If you don’t come to a complete stop before making a turn at a stop sign or out of a parking lot in Gilroy, you’re going to get a ticket. If you don’t yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks, you’re going to get a ticket in Gilroy. If you sail through yellow-maybe-red traffic signals in Gilroy, you’re going to get a ticket.
That’s not the case now.
Once drivers know that failure to drive safely in Gilroy will lead to a less-than-pleasant and expensive encounter with a GPD officer, respect for speed limits, stop signs, yellow and red traffic signals and crosswalks will increase all over the city.
The only way to achieve that is with stepped-up and consistent traffic law enforcement. That’s impossible with no one at the GPD currently dedicated to that job.
It’s time to take a serious look at traffic enforcement in our growing city. City Council members and the city administrator should become actively involved in not only making sure a traffic officer is hired ASAP, but also that the GPD is committed to a traffic enforcement as an important tenet of long-term public safety for our city.
