Make bus stops safer

Thursday, July 10, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

It is possible that no number of safety measures could have prevented the fatal accident early Monday morning at a bus stop near Boulder Highway and Flamingo Road.

The driver of a pickup truck, who has previous convictions for driving under the influence and who is now jailed on charges of having repeated that offense, suddenly swerved and hit two women waiting for a bus. One died and the other was hospitalized with critical injuries.

Barriers between the road and the bus stop, or a greater distance between the bus stop and the road, might or might not have made a difference in this accident. Nevertheless, bus stops in the Las Vegas Valley are more vulnerable to tragedies than they should be.

Past tragedies bear witness to this fact.

At least five fatal accidents have happened at bus stops since 2002, with numerous other accidents at bus stops having caused injuries or property damage. Before Monday’s accident, the area’s highest-profile bus stop tragedy took four lives in March 2005.

In both that accident and Monday’s accident, the bus stops were just feet from the road, with no barriers to shield waiting riders from passing motorists, a growing number of whom are taking illegal or legal drugs.

The Las Vegas Sun just this week published a two-part series in which it disclosed that “Nevadans consume about twice the national average of several prescription painkillers, making us among the most narcotic-addled populations in the United States.”

The driver in the 2005 tragedy was found to have high levels of a prescription drug in her system, and police suspect the driver in Monday’s tragedy also was under the influence of a prescription drug.

It is painfully obvious that waiting bus riders need more protection from passing traffic.

The Regional Transportation Commission is studying whether barriers fronting the more vulnerable stops would help.

State Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, who helped pass legislation a year ago that allowed public rights-of-way to be used for bus shelters, enabling many of them to be set back farther from the road, is now pushing a bill that would create more bus “turnouts.” Turnouts provide more room away from the road for buses to idle and passengers to board.

We hope many more ideas for improving safety at bus stops are forthcoming and get top priority. With gas prices soaring, bus passengers are increasing and the potential for more tragedies will get higher if something isn’t done — soon.