After school on a dark, blustery afternoon earlier this month, a 9-year-old boy was hit by a car walking home from Broadview Elementary.
It’s the second time in two months school children were struck in Oak Harbor crosswalks on their way to or from school by distracted drivers. In both cases, neither of the children were seriously hurt.
Despite the effort of officials, it probably won’t be the last.
In the past five years, 24 people have been hit by cars or trucks while walking or biking around the city — three were seriously hurt.
Sometimes it’s the fault of drivers, sometimes walkers.
City engineers are in the midst of updating a transportation plan that examines ways to make getting around town safer.
The plan should be complete by spring.
“We go looking for problem areas,” said project engineer Arnie Peterschmidt. “We’ll go to those sites, look at what’s there and if there is a hazard, work on eliminating it.”
Past fixes include major projects — such as working with school district officials to make the high school safer for pedestrians — and small, inexpensive fixes, such as adding small buckets with flags that walkers can grab and hold as they cross.
Sometimes it’s not clear how to make an easy fix. The intersection where the 9-year-old boy was hit, Southwest Sixth Avenue and Southwest Fairhaven Drive, is not a straight shot for drivers on Sixth.
“It doesn’t line up, it’s awkward,” Peterschmidt said. “Drivers don’t know where to look.”
Another intersection at Swantown and Heller also needs more capacity. A traffic signal or a roundabout are two choices. The roundabout would have more capacity but the terrain might make it difficult to install, he said.
He’d like to see sidewalks on the section of Fairhaven between Southwest Second and Southwest Third Avenues and also along the much longer stretch of Northeast Seventh Avenue.
City engineers are moving forward with a crosswalk mid-block on East Whidbey Avenue near Saars Market but they have to negotiate with area landowners to make it work. It’s not unusual to see people performing their own version of the video game Frogger to get across.
As part of the review, the project engineer is taking a close look at those 24 incidents that occurred in city limits between 2010 and 2015.
Not surprisingly, most incidents occurred in high traffic areas, particularly on State Highway 20, which the Washington State Department of Transportation oversees. City officials do work with the state, and some long-range plans include at least one roundabout in the southend of town.
Douglas Bender, a junior at Oak Harbor High School, lives nearby the school and walks.
On a recent fall afternoon, the streets around the school were bustling with parents picking up students, buses leaving, high schoolers driving or kids walking like Bender.
“I’ve had really close calls — about 20 of them,” he said.
And he’s been screamed at by impatient drivers while crossing the road at a crosswalk.
In 2011, the school district and city worked together to make $360,000 in improvements to some crosswalks near schools, adding solar-powered LED pedestrian signs and lights embedded in the street.
Peterschmidt does think these improvements have helped all walkers — not just children.
Ultimately, no matter how safe streets are designed, pedestrians need to be on alert and as visible as possible when on foot or a bike, he said.
