Every day, hundreds of students fight against the current to
reach their destination between the two halves of San Benito High
School.
The battle takes place at Nash Road where students are
pigeon-holed into a 10-foot-wide crosswalk with only a stop sign
between them and a car.
Every day, hundreds of students fight against the current to reach their destination between the two halves of San Benito High School.
The battle takes place at Nash Road where students are pigeon-holed into a 10-foot-wide crosswalk with only a stop sign between them and a car.
While there haven’t been any accidents where a student was injured, safety is on the mind of school officials. SBHS school officials as well as city officials are in the preliminary stages of closing Nash Road around the school campus.
“Safety is so important,” said Jean Burns Slater, superintendent of the SBHS District. “I haven’t seen any accidents, however, I’ve seen cars run right through (the crosswalk).”
‘Preliminary’ means Nash will stay open for at least five years, said Clint Quilter, public works director. When Nash closes, there needs to be another alternative for traffic.
“(Without Nash), there’s no good east-west road on that side of town,” Quilter said. “There would be a lot of cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods in that area.”
That alternative would come in the form of an extension of Westside Boulevard. Westside will run along the San Benito River and hit San Benito Street south of the school’s football field.
SBHS officials are concerned about student safety. Students sometimes cross Nash outside of the crosswalk, opening themselves up to traffic whose drivers aren’t anticipating students crossing the street away from the crosswalk crowd. With the school’s population reaching 2,900 students and a campus expansion under construction, the crowds won’t be getting any smaller.
Nighttime darkness also presents a safety problem. When the school holds dances or evening activities, the crossing guard tries to stop traffic with a flashlight, Slater said.
“It’s very difficult for people to see,” she said.
Student concerns center less on safety and more on getting to class on time. With eight minutes to traverse a campus that spans two blocks, students sometimes get to class late while waiting for the crossing guard, said Anthony Pulliam, SBHS senior.
“It’s a problem when the (campus supervisors) let cars pass, holding up students,” he said. “Students are late to class and that’s not an excuse for the teachers.”
Pulliam said he is in favor of closing Nash Road to decrease the chances of being late and the bottleneck that occurs at the crosswalk.
A design concept report is currently being completed. The report will go to the Council of San Benito County Governments, the local Measure A authority. Measure A, passed in 2002, is a half-cent sales tax intended to generate funds for road construction projects. COG will be in charge of the maintenance and construction of the Westside Boulevard extension, Quilter said.
School and city officials looked at alternatives to shutting down Nash Road. One was building a pedestrian walkway over the crosswalk, but the walkway would have to be wheel-chair accessible – indicating the need for an elevator or switch-back ramp, which would be too costly, Quilter said.
Installing a light strip was studied, but its effectiveness is limited during the day, Slater said.
Also, to get some of the funding for the Westside Boulevard extension, Nash Road would have to be closed, Quilter said.
Slater said she would like to see Nash Road closed from San Benito Street to Homestead Avenue, almost a third of a mile east of West Street, the back of the main campus.
To hear plans on the Nash Road closure and the Westside Boulevard extension, people can attend the Hollister Traffic Safety Advisory Committee meeting Monday at 11 a.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 375 Fifth St.
