"It only takes a second to injure or kill a child or person," East Palo Alto resident Bob Gomez said.
At Tuesday's East Palo Alto City Council meeting talk was on traffic safety, but the focus was on Sioreli Torres Zamora, the little girl who was fatally killed while crossing the street at Bay Road and Gloria Way in September.
Since then, the community has demanded change come to the intersection, where this year alone another little boy was hit in the same crosswalk, a bicyclist and car crash occurred, and a head-on collision happened.
Residents say a stop sign is the answer.
"There is a necessity for the stop sign," East Palo Alto resident Cristina Pulido said.
But state guidelines require five collisions to take place within a 12 month period to justify installing a stop sign. At Bay and Gloria, there have been four.
Tuesday, the city engineer recommended installing flashing LED lights, school crossing signage, high visibility cross walks, yield signs, and "no parking" signs north of the intersection.
"I still think on top of improvements stop signs would help," East Palo Alto resident Andrew Boone said.
"Having a stop sign for now makes sense," City Councilmember Rubin Abrica said.
The council voted 4-1 to adopt the improvements while still working on a stop sign plan.
The city can over ride the state's guidelines by adopting its own.
Now the city's transportation committee with review whether stop signs are appropriate in that area. If it decides they are, they will write up an ordinance which the council will vote on next month.
