EDITORIAL:When bad luck is culprit

Two fatal accidents on Pacific Coast Highway in recent weeks have raised alarms about just how safe that coastal roadway is.

On Aug. 24, Eastbluff Elementary teacher Candice Tift was hit by a car and killed while riding her bike alongside the road in Newport Beach. The 31-year-old left behind a husband, a 15-month-old son and rooms full of students at the Newport Beach school where she taught. Police are investigating to determine if the driver of the car was under the influence of prescription drugs.

A month later, on Sept. 25, 16-year-old Heather Stamm of Huntington Beach was killed while crossing Pacific Coast Highway at 6th Street in Huntington. Her 19-year-old boyfriend suffered serious injuries. Police also are investigating the accident, but police do not believe the driver of the car that struck her was driving under the influence, and no charges have been filed.

In both tragic cases, what seems to have been the culprit was terrible luck. Tift was on the sidewalk when the car veered off the road and hit her. Stamm and her boyfriend just weren’t seen.

The questions are whether more safety measures — lighted crosswalks, raised medians, pedestrian overpasses or the like — could have prevented their deaths and whether they would prevent others in the future.

Those are worthy questions to ask. The trouble, of course, is that the answers will be costly ones, and it is difficult to spend taxpayer money on such solutions when these incidents, while tragic, are rare and when safeguards are already in place.

Would an overpass have saved Stamm, and would it save others? Probably, but only if they used it. Would it be any safer than a crosswalk? Perhaps. But again, it is bad luck we are contending with in these accidents. What would be the reaction to a teenager who fell from an overpass and was killed? Would there have to be more and more steps taken? When would they stop?

Perhaps, though, there are simple, smart answers to these questions. Certainly, the first is for everyone to follow the rules, be careful and be conscientious. Drivers and pedestrians alike should watch where they are going. We cannot counter bad luck if it is coming our way, but we can do everything in our power to stack the odds in our favor.