Riders worry for their safety at Las Vegas bus stops

By Ron Sylvester

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012 | 3:10 p.m.

Anthony Morse sat waiting for a bus Thursday afternoon, his mind focused on the four people who died earlier in the day after a car driven by a suspected drunken driver slammed into a bus stop.

"See that bus stop across the street? I call those death traps," said Morse, 46, pointing to a bus stop on the westbound side on West Flamingo Road near Arville Street.

Like most of Las Vegas' bus stops, the bench sat only steps from the curb. Cars whizzed down the street, at speeds that appeared to exceed the 45 mph limit. Behind the people waiting for the bus sat a brick wall that blocked the street from a neighborhood.

"If something happens, what are they going to do?" Morse asked. "They're stuck. They don't have time to go over that wall."

The space in front of the Palms where Morse and others were waiting for a bus was much wider, about double the size.

"If I didn't have this much room, I'd be standing right back there," Morse said, walking behind the bus stop. "This is where I would feel more safe if we were closer to the street."

A woman waiting for the same bus suggested the city should install concrete crash barriers to help protect people.

Several riders said they felt even more at risk in Las Vegas, compared with other cities, because alcohol is so easy to obtain here.

"You never know where people are going or where they've been in this town," said George Johnson, 32, as he waited for a bus on West Tropicana Avenue near South Dean Martin Drive.

Rider Greg King tries to stay safe by waiting for buses on street corners where he can stand back from the curb. He said he began doing that after he witnessed a crash in July 2008 at Flamingo and Boulder Highway in which a woman died and a teenage girl lost her leg.

"Usually, I wouldn't stand here," said King, 46, as he stood under a bus stop on West Flamingo Road near South Decatur Boulevard. "But sometimes you've just got to get out of the sun."

Several passengers wondered how many people would have to die before the city takes action.

Shanell Martinez, 23, said two of her friends from high school were among the four people killed in March 2005 while they waited at a bus stop at Smoke Ranch and Rock Springs roads.

"I had been waiting for them at school," Martinez said from the bus stop on Flamingo, near Decatur. "When I heard about what happened this morning, that day came rushing back. You see cars speed up right where you're standing. It's like everyone here drives like a maniac."