After van struck 5 children in crosswalk, Pollock Pines meets to discuss road safety

The memory is still vivid and emotionally overwhelming for Carrie Molaug, a teacher who was there when a van struck five of her preschool students while on a crosswalk in Pollock Pines.

Three of the children were seriously injured last week, and the incident has left the El Dorado County town in reeling, asking how this could have happen.

“The kids that we see every day, they’re like our family. And to see something like this happen to not just one child but multiple children, and all the other children have to see it, has been heartbreaking,” Molaug said. “It’s just been probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through in my whole life. And as long as all of them make it out of the hospital, it’s gonna be a lot better. But it’s not gonna be OK.”

Molaug was among roughly 100 people who gathered Monday night at Pinewood Elementary School for a community meeting to discuss the investigation and what needs to be done to make sure the road is safe for pedestrians, especially children.

Molaug was with 18 students and other staff members from Pine Top Montessori School, which is just a few blocks from where the collision occurred on the morning of May 31. The preschoolers were on a walking field trip to a nearby park and walking across the Pony Express Trail in a crosswalk near Willow Street when they were struck by the appliance van.

The teacher knows there is a problem with speeding vehicles in Pollock Pines, and the county has had plans in the works for five years to make the road safer. Molaug said after Monday’s meeting that she was happy to see so many people there to voice their opinions, and she was grateful to the emergency responders and the employees and owners of nearby businesses who rushed to the scene and “held those children with me.”

But she doesn’t know if these safety improvements would’ve prevented what happened to her students.

“I don’t know that flashing lights are going to make a person who couldn’t see a dog and 21 people open their eyes and pay attention,” Molaug said about the van’s driver. “It’s not gonna fix any of this but to help some of our underlying issues.”

CHP investigation continues

The California Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into the collision. Lt. Rick Hatfield, commander of the CHP Placerville office, told the audience on Monday that the 21-year-old man who was driving the van was “incredibly compliant” with investigators and remained at the scene, even trying to help the children.

Hatfield said investigators have ruled out intoxication, meaning they don’t believe the driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He said investigators are still trying to determine whether vehicle’s speed was a factor. No other vehicle was involved.

The CHP has seized the van as evidence, and the investigators have two witness statements and video from a security camera to determine what led to the collision. Hatfield said there was no evidence to indicate “gross negligence” was involved.

He declined to discuss what the driver said to CHP officers when Molaug asked during the meeting. Hatfield said he did not want to reveal too much or harm the ongoing investigation. He said it was unclear to him when the investigation would be completed.

“We always want justice. Urgency is not on our radar right now,” Hatfield told the audience. “It’s more important for us to have a thorough investigation versus speeding through this to get a faster resolution.”

Pollock Pines sits alongside Highway 50, the main route used by travelers between the Sacramento area and South Lake Tahoe. The town is commonly visited by campers stopping for supplies or food.

But this town is also home to residents, and they often hear that drivers along Pony Express lose sight of other vehicles among the hills and tall trees. They complained about hardly ever seeing law enforcement officials, including the CHP or the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, patrolling the roads for speeders or other traffic violations.

Hatfield said that his officers, based in Placerville, patrol the entirety of El Dorado County, and there will be times when the number of officers available doesn’t allow them to create a constant visible presence in every community.

He said they do have a CHP traffic radar trailer to spot speeders, and the trailer was in Camino and Pollock Pines after last week’s collision. Hatfield encouraged residents to call his office and report complaints about traffic violators because that’s the only way they know where to target enforcement.

El Dorado County road improvements

Brian Mullens, deputy director of maintenance and operations for El Dorado County, heard from residents asking for a reduced speed limit on Pony Express. Some of the residents said they have seen the number of vehicles using the road increase over the years.

Mullens said the speed limit on the road was reduced before last week’s collision to 35 mph, and California uses the 85th percentile speed to determine the speed limit by rounding to the nearest 5-mph increment.

He said the county’s main road arteries are surveyed each June. He told residents that Pony Express at its peak usage in 2000 recorded 7,643 vehicles during the month but it had 5,820 vehicles in June 2022 — a 24% decrease.

“The data that we’re collecting is showing that (the number of vehicles on Pony Express) has been going down,” Mullens told the audience.

The county has a plan, which has been in the works since 2018, to add road improvements on Pony Express from Sly Park Road to Sanders Drive. Those road improvements include moving the crosswalk near Willow — where the children were hit by the van — farther east and adding a sign with flashing lights that can be activated by pedestrians before they enter the road.

Mullens said lanes on the road were already narrowed before last week’s collision to slow vehicles and create more shoulder space. He said county officials would re-examine every aspect of Pony Express to see if they could make more safety improvements. But, Mullens admitted, these projects take a lot of time. The construction for the Pony Express improvement, which has not gone out to bid, likely wouldn’t begin until summer 2024.

“We don’t want this to happen to any kid or adult out there,” Mullens said Monday. “It’s a tough one for all of us.”

The seriously injured children

Crowdfunding website GoFundMe has verified pages benefiting the families of the three seriously injured children. Krystle Najera-Bibbens set up GoFundMe pages for two boys she said are two of her son’s best friends: Jacory and Axel.

Jacory is home adjusting to a leg cast and getting around in a wheelchair, according to an update his family posted Tuesday on the GoFundMe page. In a Monday update, Axel’s family said he was now using his wheelchair, showing glimpses of his usual “silly self coming through in between the pain.”

Alison Warren said her niece, Juniper, was still intubated and remained listed in critical condition at a hospital. She said the 4-year-old girl suffered a traumatic brain injury, but the family’s spirits were buoyed Monday after receiving some positive information about her condition from doctors.

“I keep telling people we’re kind of living minute by minute, but it’s a positive that we’re gonna run with today,” Warren said after Monday’s meeting. “Please keep praying for Juniper. We are not out of the woods.”

She is posting more frequent updates on her niece’s medical condition on a separate website, and Warren said Tuesday there were more improvements.

She thanked local government representatives who attended the community meeting; she said a lot of them were there at the scene last week and later at the hospital. Warren said she hopes this will make all drivers become more vigilant on the road, something that should’ve happened before her niece and her schoolmates experienced this.

“I love the passion for change so that this never happens again,” Warren said. “I have a feeling you’re gonna see a lot of people who are passionate be out there saying: ‘Slow down.’”