97-Year-Woman Hit by Car Sunday Morning

A visually-impaired 97-year-old woman was moderately injured after being struck by a car while crossing at Ely Boulevard South and East Washington Street Sunday morning around 9am.

Police say the woman was crossing the intersection when she was struck by a Nissan SUV turning from Sonoma Mountain Parkway onto East Washington. The still low sun on the horizon may have obstructed the driver's view, who pulled over immediately following the accident.

This collision occurred at an intersection with so-called "Protected and Permissive left turns," which both police and city engineers have identified as contributing to a high number of right-of-way collisions.

Currently, there are 26 intersections in Petaluma where drivers are given a protected left turn arrow and then a permissive left turn solid green light requiring them yield first then complete the left turn.

The East Washington and Ely Boulevard intersection is scheduled to have the protected/permissive signals system removed because of the right-of-way collisions. Under a protected left turn, the vehicle in this collision would have had the right-of-way and the pedestrian crossing signal would remain red.

When the protected left turn "phase" was complete, the pedestrian signal would indicate for the pedestrian to cross, with better protection from traffic. 

Right-of-way violations are the second highest cause of traffic collisions in Petaluma. Anyone who saw Sunday's accident is asked to contact Officer Mario Giomi at 707.778.4373 and reference report number 13-1185.