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"Lessons Learned" is a series of drop-in articles prepared by the NTSB for use 
in publications of other organizations.  An index of articles is available at
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/journalist/lessons/lessons.htm
05/2005
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Lessons Learned from Accident Investigations 
Traffic Planners Urged to Improve Safety on Temporarily Closed Streets 

     A tragic crash at a California farmers' market that killed 10 people and injured 63 
sends an urgent warning to state and local traffic planners to make sure that safety 
barricades, detour signs and barriers are adequate at locations where streets are 
temporarily closed, Federal safety officials said. 

     "There are more than 3,000 farmers' markets throughout the country and even more 
festivals, parades, and similar activities, many resulting in temporary road closures," said 
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners. "It is 
imperative that cities understand the hazards associated with road closures and apply 
countermeasures that will prevent the intrusion of vehicles into pedestrian areas." 

     The Safety Board concluded its investigation into a July 2003 crash involving an 86-
year-old driver whose vehicle hit another car at an intersection in Santa Monica, 
California, and then drove into a temporarily closed street where a farmers' market was 
being held, striking pedestrians and vendor displays. 

     The Safety Board said the driver failed to maintain vehicle control because he 
probably mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes. The Safety Board 
was also concerned about an inadequate barrier system to protect pedestrians at the 
market, which contributed to the severity of the accident. 

     Santa Monica's temporary traffic plan to close the street was not consistent with its 
own established local traffic procedures or with State or national guidelines and was 
inadequate to ensure the safe flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area, the Safety 
Board said. Plastic A-frame barricades were used to close the roads instead of sturdier 
and more easily recognized Type III barricades. In addition, signage indicating the road 
closure was inadequate. 

     The temporary traffic control plan for the market had been developed more than 2 
decades ago and revised only once 5 years later, the report said. Since the city's last 
control plan revision for the market in 1986, both California's traffic manual and the 
national Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) have been updated 
several times. The Safety Board urged the city of Santa Monica to annually review and 
update its traffic control plan for the farmers' market and urged other municipalities to do 
the same.
 
     To aid city traffic planners, the Safety Board also urged the Federal Highway 
Administration to revise the MUTCD, Chapter 6, "Temporary Traffic Control," to 
provide specific references to road closure situations, other than highway construction or 
maintenance, for which the guidance is applicable. 

     Most of the information presented in both the MUTCD and the Roadside Design 
Guide focuses on work zones. While these countermeasures may also be employed for 
other types of street closures, the references and information in the guides have such a 
strong emphasis on work zones that users may have difficulty recognizing their 
applicability to other situations, according to the Safety Board. 

     Additional signs and Type III barricades alone would not have prevented the accident 
vehicle from entering the pedestrian zone in the farmers' market. But Safety Board 
investigators said they believe a positive rigid barrier system, such as removable bollards, 
would very likely have accomplished this. The city had installed removable bollards in 
another location on a street that had once been a through street, and had been turned into 
a permanent pedestrian mall. While the farmers' market location was temporary, it was a 
regularly recurring event that used part of a street twice a week; that section was open to 
traffic the rest of the time. 

     "Segregating pedestrian from vehicular traffic is a key element in pedestrian safety. 
Positive barriers between pedestrians and vehicles, although not always viable, are the 
best method of ensuring this segregation," Engleman-Conners said. 

     Safety Board investigators also pointed to other jurisdictions that have recognized the 
utility of barriers, such as bollards, in protecting pedestrians during temporary road 
closures. For example, in the early 1980s, the New Orleans city council passed an 
ordinance making Bourbon Street a pedestrian mall during nighttime hours. To protect 
pedestrians on the closed street, the city placed removable bollards in the roadway. The 
Bourbon Street bollards, which extend about 40 inches above ground and 6 inches into 
the ground, are placed each night into metal collars embedded in the roadway. The Safety 
Board urges municipalities to consider installing barricades, such as bollards, at locations 
where recurring activities require temporary road closures. 

For the complete accident report, visit the NTSB Web site at this address: 
http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2004/HAR0404.pdf