UPDATE: Fountain Avenue is now open to traffic in eastbound and westbound directions.
Two vehicles collided on Fountain Avenue this morning, leaving it blocked to westbound traffic between Hayworth and Crescent Heights as of publication of this story.
The crash occurred at the intersection of Fountain and Laurel Ave. Lt. William Nash of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said preliminary reports say one of the vehicles ran a red light and crashed into the other. One vehicle, a truck, rolled over on its side.
Nash said there were no injuries. A witness on the scene said a firefighter rescued a dog from the overturned truck. The crash occurred around 7 a.m.
This latest accident is likely to put more pressure on City Hall to take steps to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety on Fountain. The street is, for the most part, lined with houses and apartment buildings, leading many of those who live there to view it as a residential street. (The residences on much of its north side are in the City of Los Angeles.) However, Fountain also is viewed by many drivers as a major artery for traveling east to west and west to east through West Hollywood.
There have been nearly two dozen vehicle accidents on Fountain Avenue since last December, with one resulting in the death of a pedestrian, Enrique Lopez-Nava, a long-time resident of Formosa Avenue. The most recent accident occurred on Thursday when a pedestrian was hit by a car.
As mentioned in a previous story, at a recent West Hollywood City Council meeting, Hany Demitri, the city’s principal engineer, said that city staffers are working on an interim plan to improve safety on Fountain Avenue. He said he already has met with a subcommittee composed of members of the city’s Transportation and Public Safety commissions to present interim and short-term and long-term plans to address safety issues. Demitri said he hopes to have the interim plan ready to present to the City Council in February.
However, the City Council pushed City Hall to quickly implement some procedures to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety, which City Manager Paul Arevalo agreed to do.
Those measures could include moving to Fountain some of the mobile traffic warning signs that were placed on Santa Monica Boulevard before the pedestrian crosswalk synchronized traffic lights were installed there. The city already has put four flashing lights on Fountain to warn drivers to slow down.
Read the story. Some idiot ran a red light! Nothing to do with pedestrian safety. Please stop copying & pasting the same paragraph about one pedestrian death.
It’s not quite correct to say in reference to Fountain Avenue that “The residences on *much* of its north side are in the City of Los Angeles”. That’s only true between Fairfax and La Brea Avenues, a segment which constitutes only one-third of the length of Fountain Ave. in West Hollywood.
Michael: There was a bloody signal. A vehicle ran a red light. What does this have to do with the price of cable?
For the people who want to reduce the speed – how? What is the legal rationale? Thirty mph should be safe enough if drivers adhere.
I have lived on Fountain for 10 years and I can say the amount of traffic has increased tremendously. Pulling out of my driveway onto Fountain each morning is like playing Frogger. Cars speed so so much. It’s a 35 mph street and most are going 50+. It is a residential street. No businesses are on Fountain until you get to LaBrea intersection. There needs to be no parking on Fountain at peak traffic times too.
All the suggestions isn’t gonna much if the actual problem isn’t addressed: speed of cars. The only way to reduce that is to lower the speed limit, enforce it and design the street so cars will naturally slow down. It’s the only way.
During rush hour they could at least ban left turns at non controlled intersections. That would at least lessen the need to make at times unsafe lane changes. I agree, we need more motor officers. I believe there is only one asigned to West Hollywood. A few years ago a motor officer working METRO (MTA contracted law enforcment) would come over here and he stated to me he held a record for the most Moving Violations written within the LASD. I ask to him to monitor my street and he had a field day with speeders and the Stop sign… Read more »
Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement. I live 2 houses in from Fountain. The speed that is traveled on it is crazy and absolutely scary.
The best time to do something about an issue is WHEN YOU THINK OF IT! There is no benefit to deliberating, hiring consultants, deliberating………it apparently took 5 years to get crosswalks installed on Santa Monica Blvd. Surely the muscle memory of the team that navigated the crosswalk detail must be still active, ready and available to address other issues. Treat Fountain like a triage situation and please take some action. Good chance a small swarm of motorcycle cops and radar guns would wake up the speeding texters from their stupor. Not all accidents are reported and the police do not… Read more »
Where are the police? Where are motorcycle cops? Why isn’t there a left hand turn signal Nortbound and Southbound at Fountain and Cresent Heights? Why are we stuck with the Los Angeles Sherrif’s Department? Who is running this city?