Months after a van hit 5 children, El Dorado County approves $4M improvement to major roadway
In a plan that has been in the works since 2018, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has approved more than $4 million in safety improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists on the main road through Pollock Pines — where five preschool students walking in a crosswalk were struck by a van nearly five months ago.
A total of 18 students were on a walking field trip to a nearby park and crossing the Pony Express Trail near Willow Street with their teacher and other staff members on the morning of May 31 when an appliance van hit five of the children. Three of them were seriously injured; all three survived their injuries.
The preschoolers were students of Pine Top Montessori School, just a few blocks away from where the incident occurred.
In their Oct. 10 meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 for the approval of the $4.06 million road improvements project on Pony Express. The road project also includes improvements that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Construction of the road improvements is expected to begin in the spring, said Supervisor Brooke Laine, whose district includes the town of Pollock Pines. She said she knows the county’s Department of Transportation had to go through a series of steps that prevented the road work from starting sooner.
“The people of Pollock Pines have been worried about this area, accented by the tragedy with the children getting hit in the crosswalk,” Laine said at the Oct. 10 meeting. “And if we could’ve prevented that accident, we would’ve done everything in our power to do that. It was just awful timing.”
Pollock Pines sits alongside Highway 50, the main route used by travelers between the Sacramento area and South Lake Tahoe. The town is commonly visited by campers stopping for supplies or food.
But it is also home to about 6,500 residents, and county officials often hear that drivers along Pony Express lose sight of other vehicles among the hills and tall trees. Residents have complained about hardly ever seeing law enforcement officials, including the California Highway Patrol or the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, patrolling the roads for speeders or other traffic violations.
The county has had a plan, which has been in the works since 2018, to add road improvements on Pony Express from Sly Park Road to Sanders Drive. Those road improvements include moving the crosswalk near Willow — where the children were hit by the van — farther east and adding a sign with flashing lights that can be activated by pedestrians before they enter the road.
Laine said moving that crosswalk will provide a better line of sight for drivers heading in both directions in that area of Pony Express.
Injured preschool children recovering as CHP investigates
Carrie Molaug was the teacher present when the van struck her five students in the crosswalk. She was among roughly 100 people who gathered in early June at Pinewood Elementary School for a community meeting to discuss the incident.
“The kids that we see every day, they’re like our family,” Molaug said at the meeting. “And to see something like this happen to not just one child but multiple children, and all the other children have to see it, has been heartbreaking.”
The three seriously injured children, Jacory, Axel and Juniper, have all since been released from the hospital, according to GoFundMe online fundraisers created to financially support their recovery.
Juniper was the last to be released from the hospital; she was able to return home in mid-August. Alison Warren, Juniper’s aunt, wrote in an online update Sunday that her 4-year-old niece continues to recuperate with her physical therapy sessions.
At that same June community meeting, CHP Lt. Rick Hatfield said the 21-year-old man who was driving the van was “incredibly compliant” with investigators and remained at the scene, even trying to help the children.
Hatfield has said investigators ruled out intoxication, meaning they don’t believe the driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He also said investigators are still trying to determine whether the vehicle’s speed was a factor. The CHP has not released any further updates on its investigation of the collision.
The CHP seized the van as evidence, and the investigators had two witness statements and video from a security camera to determine what led to the collision. Hatfield said in June there was no evidence to indicate “gross negligence” was involved, and it was unclear when the investigation would be completed.
