Speeders complain when the city tries to reduce speeds on congested roads and the county passes pedestrian-harassment laws. Collisions (don't call it an accident) like this are why we need more street safety projects.

I'm so sorry to read this. Hope she is able to make a full recovery.

These types of crosswalks seem like they could benefit greatly from in ground flashing pedestrian crosswalk enhancements. A pedestrian pushes a button and the crosswalk begins to flash prior to the pedestrian entering the crosswalk, alerting drivers that the crosswalk is occupied (or about to be occupied).

-- CAUTION --

http://www.lightguardsystems.com

Put in all the stripes, signs and flashing lights you want, but drivers will continue to speed on wide roads. It's just how we're wired.

Does the 0.4-mile stretch of El Monte between El Camino and Springer need to be 5 lanes wide? At what cost?

Apparently the pedestrian died.

Oh dear.

No Ed, it's not how we're wired because it didn't used to be like this. Even with wide and open roads, relative to today.
The difference back then was that people actually got pulled over for speeding and other traffic infractions. People behaved because they knew there was a real rsik if they did not.
The answer is not in the laws or the roads, it is in the enforcement arm.
The police can afford the latest gizmos all the time, but they never seem to be able to afford a traffic enforcement team that would make any difference.

Lets point at who can actually make a difference! We need help!
WHERE IS MVPD!?!

As someone who walks this crosswalk almost daily something needs to be done! I can't tell you how many times my self and fellow co workers have nearly been hit by people who just simply aren't paying attention to people crossing the street. Several times someone will stop for us to cross only to have the person speed around them and almost hit someone.

RIP to the victim. Very tragic. Official sunrise time today was at 7:25am and this accident occurred at 6:38am. Visibility may have been an issue. Pedestrians crossing these kinds of crosswalks should never assume that drivers see them, especially in low light conditions.

@Drivers need ticketing: If drivers used to behave themselves in the good old days, it certainly isn't reflected in national statistics. Collision-caused deaths and injuries (including to pedestrians and other nonoccupants) have dropped significantly over the past four decades, even as population and traffic have increased. (See table 4 at Web Link

That's progress, but other countries like the Netherlands have done far better, going beyond enforcement to innovative road designs (Web Link

Researchers are starting to study how drivers react to certain road designs, and those combine to affect safety. There's evidence that the "safer" a road appears to drivers, the faster they drive, making the road less safe (Web Link

Don't blame the victim. She may have been walking as safely as she possibly could, but a wide street really does limit the pedestrian's options, especially once you get past the first lane. It is the car driver's responsibility to slow down and pay attention on a congested street. Don't assume that you are the only person using the street.

I live around the corner from that crosswalk. It should be flashing! It is such a complicated intersection, and drivers are trying to figure out now to not hit each other, especially when the left turners run the red light (happens ALL THE TIME). Going the other direction, it is optically confusing, and hard to see anyone in the crosswalk.
Pedestrians in this area almost always wear BLACK CLOTHES. I can't tell you how many people have been saved by their white socks. So, if you are walking or jogging at twilight or night, PLEASE WEAR SOMETHING WHITE!.
There should also be bright street lighting where there are crosswalks. The crosswalk on Escuela is between the streetlights, and is completely unlit. So it's hard to miss when some kid in black rides his skateboard across the crosswalk in front of a car.
Finally: parents: please stop J-walking with your kids, especially with a stroller!!! There are crosswalks. Please use them. It's not good to teach your kids they can cross the street wherever they please - it is against the law. And more importantly, it is dangerous.
The laws of physics trump the laws of the state. If I can't see you, I can't stop the care, NO MATTER HOW SLOW I AM GOING.

Don't blame the victim!

White clothes do not help. I was almost hit by a car the other day (early evening). I was wearing a long sleeve white shirt when crossing in a marked crosswalk. The car driver apologized saying they did not see me. White clothes do not help. With brightly lit car dashboards and tinted windshields and dimly lit streets, clothes color makes no difference. The only thing that works is slower car speeds so that drivers have time to pay more attention.

But Reader is absolutely right. The exact circumstances aren't yet publicly known, but that doesn't stop people here from projecting their favorite assumptions onto the case, then commenting based on those assumptions.

It's a tragic death and shouldn't have happened. Motorists have a primary responsibility not to hit people! AND YET, if in fact bad visibility contributed to this pre-dawn collision, and the pedestrians failed to prudently and defensively consider their impaired visibility to drivers when crossing, then that reality wouldn't be "blaming the victim," it would be part of the facts in the case, and worthy of publicity. (Please notice subjunctive verb mood: I, for one, don't claim omniscience.) The importance of defensive pedestrian awareness is among the few observations supported by what little is known so far.

I take walks in mountain view. This incident makes me think that I need to be more careful. I carry a handkerchief in my hand and wave it as I am crossing the street even if I see no vehicles approaching me. But I know that some vehicles turn the corner and then move fast. After this news I will be even more careful.

The real problem is over population of the city.

No matter what as long as there are cars and people accidents/suicides will happen.

We all need to watch what we are doing more carefully, drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists.

What ignorant statements you make. Especially this one, "don't make eye contact."

The best way to know what a driver is doing is to make eye contact.

It's just going to get worse once all the people move into the new complex on across the street from there on El Camino and Mariposa... More cars, more traffic, more people, more people not paying attention.

But I guess overcrowding is 'progress' for a place like mountain view

Exactly what Common Sense says. There have been NO details released and it is yet to be determined how this accident occurred. That car could have been going 5 miles under the speed limit for all we know. Facts before comments.

Prayers to the victim and her family

Drivers go too fast.
They text, read e-mail when they should be checking for hazards.
Even if they aren't distracted by their smartphone, they generally aren't paying attention anyway.
They don't come to a complete stop at stop signs MOST of the time.
Oh, the light's yellow and just turning red? No problem, I'll just floor it through the intersection and hope that a pedestrian will jump out of my way.

It goes on and on. Absolutely incredible that we don't have fatalities each day in MV.

Headline should be updated to say "killed" instead of "fatally injured".

Here's a thought stay off your phones when behind the wheel!!! Texting talking see it all day long..

It was my beautiful cousin that died in this accident, we recieved word early this morning here in San Diego. It is very sad day in our family. If this in intersection has been in question for years how many deaths need to occur before something is done by your council, or traffic control division????? Shame on them!!!

@Doc -you're right. She was killed. I've almost been run over several times at Charleston and Arastradero.

I will no longer cross the street unless I make eye contact with drivers. If I am walking with a child - just learning to cross at marked intersections - I not only instruct them to always look both ways (or sometimes 4 ways) I also have them hold out their little hands in a stop motion. It's important for pedestrians to protect themselves...

this is difficult to do when someone just comes careening round a corner at full speed. For what? For what? A few extra seconds off their drive? Someone died for this? A few extra seconds off drive time?

The person who ran over this victim has lots of soul searching to do. I don't envy them but...remember the Palo Alto high school student who ran over two kids on a bike while their father watched in horror? She got some community service time? And the guy who ran over someone on California a while back?

Accident's happen. Sometimes when accidents happen someone is being careless. BTW - it took me years to learn that pedestrians actually had the right of way here in California. Maybe we need banners - other than Stanford banners - flying saying "HELP SAVE A LIFE! PEDESTRIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY"

I'm so sorry, Ed. My thoughts and prayers are with your family.

Ellespeth

How sad. My heart goes out to family and friends.

Mountain View keeps saying that the city is moving away from cars and moving towards bicycles and pedestrian traffic. It is not safe. I have quit walking a favorite morning walk because I almost got hit at the Moffett Blvd intersection 5 times over 4 months. Drivers are either in a hurry, or have the sun in their eyes, or are distracted. It is just not worth the risk to walk.

I just honestly, seriously cannot believe some of the comments here. When I was growing up many, many years ago it was just a given that if you're crossing a street you better damn sure watch out for cars and wait till they were past so you didn't get hit. And this was in a smallish town, didn't even have lot of traffic.. It was back when traffic was just traffic and we had this basic reality of "a car should be respected. It's bigger than you"

My heart goes out to this girl/woman and her family. And also the driver who will live with this forever. Absolutely and completely, this is w/o a doubt incredibly tragic.

But I also seriously have to question what kind of messages we're putting out there encouraging pedestrians to assert their "rights". Honestly, I teach my kids..."DON'T walk across until there are no cars and you can get across before the next car even gets close". I don't teach them that THEY have the right-away.....I teach them that the car always has the right-away, it's bigger than them and it will always win and RESPECT THAT.

WTH is going on with this PC crap? It's lovey dovey to kumbayah but reality is a CAR WILL ALWAYs WIN. Start teaching not only respect, but caution and doubt, and perhaps we'll cut down on these unfortunate, horrible situations.

@Liz I am just reading your comments and again, I am absolutely AGHAST at what you're saying and implying.

"The person who ran over this victim has lots of soul searching to do"

You have NO IDEA what happened in this accident. I'll counter your statement and say "My heart goes out to the person who ran over this victim". At this point we don't know who was at fault but we do know the person in the car will be the one living with the result forever.

As a previous poster pointed out, the accident was at 6:38am, before the sun was up, quite possibly a time when a pedestrian wouldn't be easily seen.

Pedestrians do indeed have the right away. But I'm not willing to put my life, or my kids, on some legal-BS idealogy, apparently you are.

The situation has gotten worse as traffic going from El Camino to Foothill Expressway and 280 has increased. This has nothing to do with the locale of the accident, other than more cars.

I think that pedestrians should be forbidden from crossing here and the crosswalks should be removed. It makes no sense to have 2 crosswalks on both sides of a small 2 lane street where it intersects a 5 lane wide major thoroughfare. Before removing the crosswalks, a signal-controlled intersection should be created where the shopping center opens onto El Monte, a short bit south of the current crosswalks. There should be a single crosswalk crossing El Monte at the shopping center light.

This is a major change that hasn't been needed till now, but the time is here. These 2 ped crossing are much more dangerous now than they were just 2 or 3 years ago.

Convert two lanes to a substantial median would go a long way to calming the dangerous and aggressive driving that goes on there. Also the pedestrians would be exposed for a shorter amount of time.

Planted trees and shrubs would help absorb CO2 and generate oxygen. Win-win!

Agreed. If they reduce it down to 1 lane beginning somewhere before the CVS driveway it would help drivers coming and going from the driveway as well as pedestrians. There is no need to be going 40 in that stretch, everyone should be slowing or slowed since the road ends shortly thereafter. I see a lot of drivers playing the "I have to get ahead of the other guy" game here as well. This would stop these weak ego people who are endangering us all.

I agree with the suggestion by "Traffic" above. Take out the two crosswalks at Marich and put in a lighted crosswalk a bit further south on El Monte. Unlit crosswalks over multi-lane roads are incredibly dangerous. What often happens is that the lead driver will see a pedestrian in the crosswalk and stop while drivers in the other lane have an obscured view, don't see the pedestrian, and keep going.

My thoughts and prayers are will all those involved in the collision.

Does anyone know how to officially petition the city to improve the crosswalks at this intersection? A couple of ideas have been discussed below, but how can we be sure this comes to the attention of city planners?

As I've seen on Shoreline, even lit and flashing crosswalks do not result in drivers actually stopping to yield the right of way to crossing peds. The way to make it safe is to understand drivers WILL NOT yield if given their choice, so removing the choice is safest.

I think the fatality will get their attention. It caused a death for residents to get a stop sign on Phyllis and Hans. We didn't wait for drivers to do the right thing, because as we all know, they would not have. Force, by way of a stop sign was needed.
In this area force by lane reduction will be the only thing that works. Drivers will not act on what is safest, drivers only act on what is fastest.
Since we cannot and will not be able to count on MVPD doing any sort of actual large scale, prolonged traffic enforcement activity, we have to design speed proof roads.

People used to be afraid of getting tickets. Not anymore. Any foo,l could come up with en enhanced prolonged traffic law campaign, floating around targeting different areas and writing tickets until their fingers cramp. That is what is needed. I wish we had cops in this town. Not sure who those people are driving around in cop cars, but they sure as heck are not doing what people expect them to do.

we have been trying to get traffic calming for years on Sylvan where speedin by the Park is the norm, there has been more than one accident where pedestrians were hit by a car IN the crosswalks. We went to the City, got a petition, attended meetings, the City issued memos that said they were 'studying' the situation, etc etc. We requested the embedded flashing lights, a solar flashing speed limit sign on either side of the park...SOMETHING to slow cars down as it is a straight show to 237 on ramp. Nothing was done, aside from cutting a few limbs away from the street lights and putting a post in middle of cross walk (not illuminated or flashing). I guess they will wait until there is a fatality to make some changes. With that said pedestrians need a flashing device on themselves and they need to proceed with caution. pedestrians may have the right of way but a person is no match for vehicle.

Are you concerned about safety?

1. You can use Ask Mountain View to generically notify the city -- Web Link

2. Work with your neighbors and friends to send an email to citycouncil@mountainview.gov with your concerns about traffic safety as this intersection. Copy Max Bosel, Police Chief (max.bosel@mountainview.gov) and the Public Works Director (michael.fuller@mountainview.gov) who is in charge of city infrastructure like streets, and has several traffic engineers who report to him.

The police SEE people using their cellphones yet NEVER seem to write DISTRACTED DRIVING TICKETS because maybe ? they think it is just too much of a hassle for them and takes up too much of their valuable time??? ... SO WEIRD how many more people get run down by cars nowadays than in the past --- could it have anything to do with seemingly EIGHTY PERCENT OF DRIVERS either having a cellphone shoved up against their heads or driving with their heads DOWN, looking DOWN at the cellphone that these jerks have OH SO CLEVERLY hidden in their laps??? ... the police NEVER ENFORCE DISTRACTED DRIVING LAWS, especially those laws regarding PAYING MORE ATTENTION TO YOUR CELLPHONE THAN TO WHERE YOU'VE POINTED YOUR 3,000 LB., METAL, FAST-MOVING, 4-WHEELED WEAPON!!!

First of all, my heart goes out to the victim and to the driver as well.

Don't blame MVPD, they are out there and they are enforcing the laws. I see them around the schools keeping our children safe by ticketing unsafe drivers. I think MVPD is sincere in it's effort to keep MV safe.

Mountain View is just way too crowded, you can blame the city council for that.

It takes two, the driver and the pedestrian, both need to pay attention. Saying the pedestrian has the right of way may give them a false sense of security. No one wants to hit someone with their car.

Stop blaming the pedestrian. They should exercise their right. Know why? Because if a pedestrian yields to cars, then that teaches the driver that they don't need to yield. It sends a mixed message.

I sometimes yield to a car, but I make a show at giving permission. Waving them by makes is both feel good.

In response to its the victims fault, get a life she was crossing the road at a crosswalk. Im a runner and that particular crosswalk is like taking your life in your own hands. Drivers have no regard for pedestrians especially at that particular crosswalk. Condolences to her family may she rest in peace

Sorry to learn about the loss of one of our neighbors. The crosswalks at Marich and El Monte are always dangerous to walk across. Recommend flashing lights ground into the pavement so that pedestrians can have a safe walk crossing this intersection. By the way, the flashing lights installed along San Antonio Road in Los Altos do work for pedestrians crossing the street--check it out.

No, MVPD is NOT out there enough writng tickets, not on a daily basis that would actually make people think, hey, I better slow down, they ran radar here last week. Yes, they make a big showy splash about the school zones they target. When have you EVER seen MVPD doing radar on Miramonte and ticketing people for 40MPH? It used to happen regularly and people drove slower because of it. When have you seen them getting out among the lunatics on 237 as they approach ECR? Another spot where anarchy rules because there is no threat of any law enforcement.
How about the last time you saw them write a ticket for tailgaters or for not using a turn signal? The only time the care about pulling someone over is if they think there is a bigger bust than just a traffic citation.

If MVPD cannot help us, who can? Surely the drivers will not police themselves. We have seen that failed experiment.
No fear of a ticket = free to kill again. MVPD can do something about it. Start with doubling your traffic officers, then set them loose to do their job!

My information is that at any one time Mountain View has only 4 policemen on patrol, they are busy with non vehicle crime. We need 4 more policemen on duty to hand our traffic tickets to make sure that drivers follow the law.
This will require more taxes, I say raise taxes to cover traffic control, will you fight this tax or support the tax?

This is utterly horrifying news. The Stanford community is mourning Michelle's death. I am so sorry for this tremendous loss.

I do hope that residents urge the city to make needed safety improvements at this intersection. We all know that there needs to be bloodletting before a traffic situation changes.

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Maybe a pedestrian under-pass would be possible here. No need to cross traffic at all! These work great in a lot of places, but for some reason, they get nasty and unkempt in the US.

Resident, which state in the US seems the worst in this unkempt observation you have pinned on "The US"

How many underpasses in each state have you visited? What state is best/worst in this regard? Do you really think you have enough data to make the assumption that they are bad in the US? How many data points did you look at
at what percentage of the total was that?

If you want to walk around with the attitude of "I'm a pedestrian, I have the right of way" then you are stupid. It may be the law but when it comes down to it, the pedestrian will lose.
Having the right of way doesn't bring your life back.
Pedestrians and drivers both need to be more aware of what's going on around them and have more respect for the traffic laws and speed limits put in place.
My heart not only goes out to the Montalvo family, but also to the driver of the vehicle that killed her. That's a heavy burden to live with for the rest of your life.
Rest in peace Michelle. You will be missed.

How about in addition to flashing lights, tire spikes that pop up when someone is in the crosswalk. I'm not totally serious here, but having some consequence to drivers who ignore pedestrians may help.
I'd like to see better lighting too. How about a high intensity LED floodlight that illuminates the crosswalk when someone presses the walk button. Every night I make a left turn off Moffett onto Central Ave and the there are often people coming from the train station who are just very hard to see. I go extra slow and scan over and over with my eyes first. The lighting is dim and it's like that "dusk" lighting which can be worse than no lighting at all because it renders your headlights useless.

I'd like to see the installation of flashing pavement lights in as many locations as possible. The ones on Showers Drive work really well.

I almost hit a skateboarder at 6:10am today. He was dressed in black and there were flashing lights on the front of his skateboard. He came around a corner that has little lighting. Almost every day I see bicyclists riding in the dark wearing dark clothes, no helmets and no bike lights who cut across streets wherever they want. Yesterday a biker rode down El Camino on the white line between lanes 2 and 3 in heavy traffic. Car drivers can't look in every direction at the same time.

This is a tragic incident, so sorry for all involved.

I have to say that this particular double crosswalk on El Monte is treacherous. Heading N on El Monte you have to watch for traffic coming in/out of the CVS parking area, and then the double crosswalk. I have many times not seen a pedestrian on the far curb entering the E side of the crosswalk due to traffic and the shaded area they are standing in.

I agree with the suggestion of putting in lighted warnings as has been done near downtown Los Altos. Further, it would seem to be much safer to reduce this to a single crosswalk and/or relocate it to better integrate with the CVS et al parking entrance.

If vehicles were traveling at or under the speed limit in this area, it would make it far less dangerous. The propensity for so very many drivers to constantly drive over the speed limit is something making our roads very dangerous on an every day/all hours level.
I'm stating the obvious, but so few are actually willing to slow their speed.

I wish MV Voice would provide an update on this story. LATC indicated that the victim was hit while walking along El Monte. If that is the case then this may not be a crosswalk issue at all.

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WOW.

Sounds like someone needs to get a grip (or go on meds, one or the other). And repeating drivers' ed wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I ride a trike 2-3X a week crossing El Monte/Marich and find the news distressing when I learn some poor soul "got it" at that same intersection. Formerly I thought that ECR was far more hazardous for pedaled transport due to the high volume and higher speeds of vehicles, so I use the sidewalk as a thoroughfare whenever possible, like other bikers.
To the point: there is some lack of judgement providing TWO crosswalks at El Monte/Marich- ONE should be the designated access for crossing, and it should be lit for shorter daylight hours, with flashing embedded LEDs defining the walk, with preferably a flashing amber light on a post raised to driver's eye level. Los Altos provides this feature on San Antonio next to their town center by their library and City Hall- is it possible for MV city to see and emulate this example, on a six-lane thoroughfare even, it seems to work on this particularly busy street with impatient commuters. I speak from experience over the last few months.
Back to El Monte-- this particular crosswalk provides access for local residents and students to a popular shopping mall that provides shopping and dining, and access to it is very necessary. Witness their parking lot, always full of vehicles at present. Mention was made earlier of the monster apartment blocks rising just across ECR- that surely means more traffic, plus pedestrians attempting to cross ECR- has any thought been given to the problems inherent in 500+ apartments with their tenants accessing said mall? ECR has NO pedestrian crosswalks between Escuela and Shoreline; verify this with VTA passengers who arrive from San Jose/Sunnyvale and must dodge traffic to get home south of ECR. Check with Prometheus, the developers of those units, and enquire pointedly if an future solution just MIGHT involve a pedestrian overpass, especially if it might benefit small children on their way to school. Hmmm?

The current speed limit where the accident happened is 35 mph. One solution would be to revise the speed limit to 25 mph. That is still too fast, depending on the conditions of the road, but it is a start.

We drivers are deluding ourselves if we are telling ourselves that we are not the problem. I drive here everyday and continually see aggressive drivers, they don't yield, and they continually compete to be top dog,in front speeding 10-20 miles over the speed limit acting like the person in front of them going the speed limit or a mere five miles over it is a huge burden and problem to them. They race around at every opportunity to go faster. Our self absorbed entitled society killed this woman. Look in the mirror, it's who you are. Take stock and change, you have the power to change this trend we are experiencing in Mountain View and all of "Me First" Silicon Valley.

It could have been anyone one of us to kill this woman because with the exception of a few drivers, we all drive this way.

Details of the incident...
Two women were crossing the street at the intersection of El Monte and Marich Way. It was early Thursday morning, about 6:30am, and still dark so visibility wasn't the greatest. The women began crossing the street, stopping half way, at the median, before proceeding the rest of the way. A vehicle was approaching from the distance. The women began walking, assuming the driver was aware of their presence in the crosswalk and that the vehicle would stop for them. As the vehicle got closer, they realize it wasn't stopping. One of the ladies was able to jump onto the sidewalk, barely missed by the vehicle while the other woman wasn't so lucky. The driver of the SUV wasn't paying attention to the road because he didn't even hit the brakes until after the woman was hit (as seen on traffic cameras in the area). It is still unclear as to what he was doing at the time, maybe he was on his phone or messing with the car radio, who knows?? It is an unfortunate turn of events with a horrible outcome.

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