City Council passes school safety plan following Jefferson HS crash

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — The El Paso City Council passed on Tuesday, Sept. 24 an action plan to add new school zones and improve existing infrastructure across the City.

City officials said they want to encourage more walking and biking to school in El Paso.

The action plan details infrastructure improvements, safety education curriculum and adding new school zones to some needed areas, City officials said.

During a recent meeting, City Rep. Josh Acevedo raised concerns about Paisano Drive near Jefferson High School.

As we previously reported, on Sept. 18, four high school students were hit by a car in that area. The crash happened on Paisano Drive and Val Verde Street during the middle of the school day.

As of Friday, Sept. 27, two of those students are still in a local hospital, according to a family member’s Instagram post.

City officials say this action plan is meant to prevent another incident like that from happening again.

“We did include a section about the Paisano study. And we are working with text and communicating with them what we think needs to be prioritized there,” said Anna Mesa-Zendt, the bicycle and pedestrian program manager for Elevate El Paso.

“Outside of that, what you’re saying about addressing these fatalities, I think there’s a lot of room underneath our Vision Zero plan. And this ultimately will fall under the Vision Zero initiative, where we can do improvements where those fatalities are occurring,” she said.

Acevedo added: “Right in front of Jefferson (high school) and going over the Raynolds Bridge, that has been a very dangerous road as well.”

KTSM reached out to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) on whether they were planning on making any improvements to the Paisano Drive area.

They sent us a statement that reads in part:

“We are currently removing the underutilized pedestrian bridges on Paisano at Francis, and at Tobin and will be replacing them with ADA-compliant, at-grade mid-block pedestrian hybrid beacon crosswalks including installation of overhead school zone flashers for a school zone from Washington St. to Val Verde St.”

According to TxDOT, they want to start these improvements in “about five months.”

KTSM also spoke with several students at Jefferson High School who said they do not like crossing the street in that area.

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