Editorial: Install signals now for dangerous path

Friday, Oct. 8, 1999 | 8:58 a.m.

The city of North Las Vegas plans to install a traffic signal at the busy intersection of Lake Mead Boulevard and Simmons Street, which is where an 8-year-old boy, Erik Quintana Jr., was killed on Sunday when a driver allegedly ran a stop sign and hit a van carrying him and his family. As the Sun's Diana Sahagun reported Wednesday, families say the intersection is dangerous, especially for children who must cross the street on their way to school.

But the city's Public Works Department says it will take until March to get the traffic signal in place, so in the interim the Clark County School District is doing the right thing by adding two bus stops nearby that should allow children attending elementary school to avoid the intersection entirely. Although the city eventually will add a traffic signal, North Las Vegas should fast-track the process and eliminate some of the bureaucratic red tape so that this life-threatening intersection doesn't endanger children any longer, whether they're on their way to school or not.

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