County presses for flashing warning lights at intersections

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

The Clark County Commission directed county road engineers Tuesday to install flashing warning lights as quickly as possible at any four-way stop intersections in unincorporated Clark County that merit them, even if that means all 88 such intersections.

Public Works officials told the commission that they would come back next month with a proposal and a price tag for the work, which could cost the county $1.5 million, the department's spokesman, Bobby Shelton, said following the commission meeting.

Cries for more traffic control were raised in September after a 7-year-old girl was killed by a driver who ran a stop sign at Desert Inn Road and Hualapai Way. Dawn Blinder, the girl's mother, has attended a series of commission meetings at which the stop signs were discussed, asking for traffic lights to be installed.

At Tuesday's meeting, she repeated her plea that all the intersections that qualify for such upgrades from stop signs to traffic signals receive the lights.

She said the county only responds to problem intersections after receiving complaints from residents, and then only after a long period of study. It can take "a year or more" to get a traffic light in place, Blinder said.

"I find this timeline is totally unacceptable," she said.

After the collision that claimed her daughter's life, Public Works installed a flashing warning system affixed to the stop signs at Desert Inn and Hualapai. Public Works officials said the warning lights, similar to what they have planned for the county's other 88 sign-controlled intersections, cut the number of drivers running the stop signs from more than 200 in a one-day period to just seven.

Blinder said the flashing red warnings are not a substitute for the full traffic controls.

"During the day they are not very noticeable from a distance," she said. "The red flashers are merely a Band Aid on a huge open wound ... How long are we to wait? It has been eight months already."

Shelton said Public Works has had a difficult time finding a company willing to take on the work, but the department is now in negotiations with a contractor to install a traffic light at the intersection.

The department has said the $250,000 per-intersection cost for traffic lights may make that option cost-prohibitive for many other intersections, but commissioners said they will discuss the funding issue in upcoming budget workshops.

John Toth, Public Works traffic management manager, initially proposed a study of different warning systems installed at a dozen of the intersections.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald said she wanted something more complete and soon.

"We do have limited resources, but at the same time I think there are intersections today that warrant these types of safety measures," she said. "We almost need to have a two-tiered approach, one we can implement immediately and one we can implement in 12 months.

"Public safety is an essential service. It has to be at a top of the priority line. This to me is a today thing. Waiting for more analysis to them come back and waiting to implement is just not acceptable to me."