Sounding Off: Coast crosswalks pose dangers

Last weekend I was staying at the Surf and Sand in Laguna Beach. Unfortunately, what I will remember most about my stay is not the beautiful view or the yoga on the beach. It is getting hit by a car Saturday afternoon when I was crossing Pacific Coast Highway in a crosswalk to return to the hotel.

It turns out I am one of the lucky ones “” not that I got hit, but that my injuries weren’t life-threatening. Since my accident, I have researched crosswalk accidents in Laguna. They seem to result in death an average of once a year and serious injuries much more frequently.

From reviewing information from the past decade, and from my own painful experience, it is obvious that crosswalks on a street with the word “Highway” just don’t work. With a 40 mph speed limit, drivers on PCH are not conditioned to watch for pedestrians. Sure, the law is in our favor, but that’s small consolation when you’re lying in the road with a stranger holding your head asking you if you remember your own name.

Speaking of strangers, I have to mention that the people who stopped to help me were so kind, as well as knowledgeable about what to do in an emergency like this. Some of them were lifeguards, and even the car that hit me was driven by a lifeguard. The strangers and the professionals who came to my aid left a positive impression about Laguna.

However, that positive impression is overwhelmed by the irresponsibility of a city that doesn’t learn from its own history. How many people have to be injured, end up in a coma or die before the point is made: Cars don’t stop at crosswalks. Those crosswalks without traffic signals should be upgraded immediately. If the concern is slowing traffic, then make them seasonal. But on a July afternoon, you are taking your life in your hands crossing PCH anywhere other than at a signal in Laguna. The tragedy is that the city knows this and does nothing about it.

LAURA FOTI COHEN lives in Los Angeles.