Milpitas residents want safer intersection after series of traffic accidents

MILPITAS, Calif. (KGO) -- A Milpitas woman became so frustrated by the traffic accidents outside her house that she mounted a camera pointed at the intersection. On Sunday, she recorded the worst of them yet.

For Joy Rajasalu, home sweet home these past 40 years has come with an occasional and undesired twist.

"I never know when it is going to happen," she said. "It" being the reason she mounted the video camera on her garage, pointing at the intersection of Evans Road and Kennedy Drive, where "it" happened again on Sunday.

When asked if it is a safe intersection, Rajasalu replied, "No, absolutely not. Because somebody's going to get hurt, maybe killed. These cars, as you can see, they fly like maniacs down the street."

The passengers in the white van walked away after a motorcyclist helped pull them out. The driver that hit them went to the hospital.

It's not the first time Rajasalu has seen an accident here. Why else would she plant a row of 10-ton boulders in front of her house?

All she wants is a couple of stop signs. She wants the two-way stop changed to a four-way stop.

At last count, Rajasalu said there have been 15 accidents here in the past eight years. That's more than two per year, not counting the car that plowed through her house 20 years ago.

"Well, we had the people that work at the planning commission out here last year for this accident and they really didn't give an answer. And it was like, you know, maybe they don't have the money. They have to do a study. That's what they tell me," she said.

ABC7 News did show the video to Milpitas Police Chief Steve Pangelinan, who is aware of problems here. "It is not the first accident we've had at that intersection, no," he said.

Beyond that, the city remains non-committal. ABC7 sent a copy of the video to the city's traffic engineer. If he needs them, Rajasalu said there are plenty more where this came from.

"I don't know if it's money or they have to do a study or whatever they have to do but they need to get it done before somebody gets killed," she said.