Traffic Danger Growing at Many Schools : Accidents: Hazards range from speeding to double-parking. Police say parents are partly to blame. A 3-man patrol is ‘overwhelmed.’

Shortly after 7 a.m., crowds of young people approached Sepulveda Junior High School for morning classes. Many of them had to cross Plummer Street to reach campus. But cars sped past, traveling as fast as 45 m.p.h. through the 25 m.p.h. school zone.

The students hesitated at the curb. A few days earlier, one of their classmates had been struck down in the crosswalk, the fourth to be hit this school year.

On Friday, in response to the Tuesday accident, a quartet of motorcycle officers patrolled the street and issued 10 tickets within 40 minutes.

“Talk about your oblivious drivers,” said Los Angeles Police Officer Ray Bussard, who had just cited a woman for narrowly missing a crossing student while other cars were stopped. “I asked her why she didn’t stop for that kid and she said that the other cars blocked her view. Of course, she never thought to stop herself.”

Because four students have been hit, Sepulveda Junior High has become a focal point for Los Angeles Unified School District administrators and city officials.

But police and the school district say dozens of campuses in the San Fernando Valley are subject to hazardous traffic conditions ranging from speeding to double-parking.

“We’re overwhelmed with trying to eliminate kids getting struck. We want to eliminate crossing guards getting struck too,” said Sgt. Dennis Zine, who, among other duties, heads a three-man traffic detail that patrols school streets in the Valley. “We’re talking about kids’ lives, and motorists are not getting the message.”

According to police, a large percentage of problem drivers are parents dropping their children off and picking them up at school.

“It’s frustrating for us,” Bussard said. “They double-park, which is dangerous, and watch their child get out of the car and get into school safely. Then they rush off to work and create another dangerous situation.”

The Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division and school district officials compiled a list of what they believe are the five most dangerous schools in the Valley, in no particular order.

* Cohasset School in Van Nuys: The main problem is speeding, Principal Maria Villasenor said. “We’re right on Saticoy Street and even though we have a traffic signal within three blocks, it seems that cars go by really, really fast,” she said. In September, a school crossing guard was struck by a speeding car and suffered two broken arms, two broken legs and a fractured pelvis. As in other schools, Cohasset has held traffic safety assemblies for students and sent information to parents. And, like Sepulveda Junior High, officials at the elementary school have asked the city’s Department of Transportation to install a traffic light at its crosswalk. “We’re still waiting,” Villasenor said. “I worry about our children crossing Saticoy.”

* Chatsworth Park School: Administrators at the elementary school keep a fearful eye on the adjacent intersection of Devonshire Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. “We have people coming off the 118 Freeway at high speeds,” Principal Anais Ruiz said. “We have an RTD bus stop in front of the school.” So far, no students have been struck by cars. Still, Ruiz said she wouldn’t let her children walk to school. “Not until they got to be in the upper grades,” she said. “That’s why we have so many parents dropping kids off.”

* Limerick Avenue School in Canoga Park: Parents represent the biggest hazard. They park across from the elementary school and call for their children to jaywalk across the street, Principal Ronni Ephraim said. The school is combating the problem by lining as many as six staff members and parents across the front of the campus and herding students toward a crosswalk. There is also a nearby intersection, with a crossing guard, where seven accidents have occurred this school year, Ephraim said. No one was hurt.

* Saticoy School in North Hollywood: Again, parents are the problem. “They double-park and let their kids out in the middle of the street,” Principal Sandra Coffey said. “Some of the parents walk across with them, but then the parent and the child could be hit.” The elementary school has opened its side gates and encouraged parents to drop students off on less-traveled side streets. The city also installed stop signs at the corners in front of the school to cut down on speeders. “It’s important for drivers to think and look,” Coffey said. “If they just obey the traffic laws, it would certainly help.”

* Sepulveda Junior High: The 12-year-old boy who was hit Tuesday suffered a broken leg and badly bruised arm, school administrators said. On Thursday, Mayor Tom Bradley sent a pointed memo to the Department of Transportation, ordering swift safety improvements. “We’re certainly pleased because we feel that each day someone’s life is at stake,” Principal Bob Reimann said.

Last summer, the city installed stop signs at many school corners. Even that hasn’t been successful.

“I was just at Lanai Elementary School and watched 10 cars go through an all-way stop that we put in,” said Pete Anderson, a district safety officer. “One lady went through it in a Mercedes, and she had a baby in the baby seat.”

Anderson said transportation officials have tried to help but have come up short.

“The Department of Transportation is in a tough spot because they’ve come up with standards that are not realistic,” he said. “They usually honor our requests for putting in crosswalks and stop signs. It’s where we get into putting in a signal or a flashing light or mid-block crosswalks . . . those are some stickier problems.”

Officials at Sepulveda Junior High, for one, have been requesting a traffic signal for more than a decade. Previous city studies have concluded that no such action was warranted. Anderson said he believes that the Department of Transportation is understaffed and underbudgeted.

“There are just too many things going on for them to cope with,” he said.

Police add whatever help they can to their three-man school detail, which roves from campus to campus.

“We spend the mornings and afternoons at elementary schools,” Bussard said. “At lunchtime, we patrol high schools and ticket the kids who are cruising, showing off to their friends. We get a lot of speeding tickets, a lot of stop-sign violations.”

School officials suspect that the hazards around schools may be even more serious than they know.

“I’ve seen kids get bumped by cars and not injured, and no report is filed,” Anderson said. “I know a lot of accidents go unreported.”

Back at the junior high, a pickup screeched to a halt inches short of the crosswalk. Zine shook his head.

“It’s just too close for comfort.”