Crash survivor tells Lewiston Council people are ignoring stop signs

By Davis Archibald

April 18, 2008| LEWISTON -- Five fused vertebrae, 18 days in the hospital and months of bed rest later, Adam Johnson came to talk to the City Council about an issue he said didn't know was a problem in Lewiston until it happened to him.

"People aren't stopping at our stop signs," Johnson said.

Johnson said he was driving through the intersection of 800 East and 800 South when a young man failed to stop at a stop sign and hit him on the driver's side.

Johnson came to the meeting to make sure that council members were aware of the issue and to offer some possible solutions to the problem.

"If there is something I can do to help promote this, I will," Johnson said.

Among Johnson's proposals were increased patrolling of problem intersections by the Cache County Sherriff, additional signs used to warn drivers of an upcoming stop sign, and to encourage Judge Evan Hall to enforce traffic laws strictly.

Councilman Darwin Pitcher encouraged Mayor Kelly Field to contact the sheriff's office about increased patrols of stop signs. According to each member of the council they had all had experiences seeing people running stop signs.

"Any resident always slows down," Councilwoman Karen Jackson said during the discussion.

Jackson felt that those who came from out of town were the one's not properly stopping at stop signs.

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