Residents continue to express concern over speeders

Lone Pine youth struck by vehicle earlier this month

Fifth District Supervisor Matt Kingsley and Lone Pine residents again raised concerns over speeders along U.S. Highway 395 after a Lone Pine youth was struck while trying to cross the highway earlier this month.

Kingsley, who brought the issue up during Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, described how on Feb. 8 a truck was headed southbound on the highway through Lone Pine and stopped so a high school student could cross the highway. However, the driver of another vehicle behind the truck pulled into the other lane and tried to pass the parked truck and struck and injured the student, though not seriously.

“I’ve said this for a number of years,” Kingsley said, “the No. 1 constituent complaint that I get in Lone Pine is the speed of traffic,” which outweighs other complaints, including potholes.

He said Caltrans, which has jurisdiction over the highway, while being responsive and accessible locally, isn’t moving fast enough as an agency to address his and constituents’ concerns.

Kingsley recalled that about a year ago Caltrans hosted an online workshop for Lone Pine that had strong attendance and the chief focus was coming up with ways to slow traffic on the highway.

“It did lead to some plans,” he said. “It’s just that Caltrans plans take three or four years to come to fruition.”

He said he encouraged residents to speak out at county meetings because, even though the county isn’t in charge of the highway, supervisors can relay those messages to Caltrans.

“This is what my constituents up and down the Valley in these little towns are worried about,” Kingsley said.

He said just a few days after the incident with the high school student, another near-accident occurred involving an 8-year-old girl and a semitruck.

Kingsley said he thinks its important that county schools and residents highlight this issue “in every way we can.”

Speaking out

Scott Kemp, Lone Pine parent and school board member, agreed with Kingsley that this is the most pressing issue that residents are talking about.

Kemp said Lone Pine is unique because the high school sits at the southernmost end of town and

the grammar school is located on the northern end of town “where traffic comes in at 50 to 70 miles per hour.”

Kemp said if anyone has any doubt regarding the dangerous situation, he invited them to come to Lone Pine.

“Go to the Frosty, get a burger and a milk shake, cross the street to the park, be very careful, and sit there for a few minutes and you will see the traffic coming into town,” Kemp said.

Kemp said he agreed that Caltrans “takes forever” though he expressed appreciation for local law enforcement, including the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol, for patrolling as much as they can.

But the speeding,

Kemp said, occurs “at all times of the day and night” and local law enforcement doesn’t have those kinds of resources.

Kemp also highlighted that some of the traffic control infrastructure in Lone Pine, such as lights and speed monitors set at each end of time “haven’t worked for I don’t know how long.”

The LA mentality

Kemp said Lone Pine isn’t unique in this challenge, which also impacts Independence, Big Pine and Bishop.

“I think it’s a mentality of LA traffic,” Kemp said. “I don’t think they’re knowingly wanting to race through town but that’s just what they are used to.”

Kemp said he had to remind a friend who was up from the LA area to slow down from 60 mph to the posted 35 mph when he got into Lone Pine.

“We get to Independence, what does he do? The exact same thing,” Kemp said. “We get to Big Pine, the same thing, and we get to Bishop, same thing.”

Kemp said the attitude needs to change through some means of traffic control because “the crosswalks and the speed signs don’t do it.”

‘Protect our kids’

Mandy Kemp, who is Scott Kemp’s wife and works for Healthy Communities of Southern Inyo County, said she also has been working with Caltrans, which has a plan in the works but it’s “vague and it doesn’t have any concrete date when something’s going to be in place.”

Mandy Kemp said the plan that is more than a year old now includes traffic controls, such as pedestrian-activated beacons, though those won’t be considered by the state for another three years in 2026.

“So we’re talking years out until something is going to be considered, Mandy Kemp said, adding that the project bid would have to be issued and awarded, which would push the infrastructure back “another couple of years.”

She said she talked to a Caltrans representative after the high school student was injured and was told that temporary measures could possibly be put in place.

Mandy Kemp suggested that if parents and community members, including the county supervisors, “call constantly” to Caltrans and “see if we can get something more concrete in place to protect our kids.”

She said Lone Pine is a unique, small community where kids can go to the park, go to a friend’s house but “it’s not safe to cross the street,” adding that she doesn’t allow here three children to cross the highway.

Aicia Southey, the mother of the high school student who was in the accident, said her son was lucky the car clipped him with the side of the vehicle and not head on.

“He spun like a top on the asphalt,” Southey said. “He has road rash all over his legs,” among other physical injuries.

Southey said beyond the physical injuries, her son also suffered emotionally and was unable to sleep for a week after the accident “because every night he would wake up in a sweat, seeing the lights in his eyes and having panic attacks.”

She said her son had yet to return to school because “the PTSD is just a little bit much for him right now.”

Southey said residents have known about the situation for years and that it was a matter of “when” and not “if.”

Southey said she would appreciate the support from supervisors in getting something to improve pedestrian safety, even if temporarily for now.

Kingsley said recent traffic counts showed that on average per day Lone Pine sees about 7,000 vehicles going north and south each way and during peak times, such as three-day weekends, the count can jump to a high of more than 9,000 vehicles.