SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- Police say it's a tragedy that could have been prevented. A bicyclist is on life-support after police say she failed to use a cross walk at a busy street in Santa Barbara.
Drivers racing through the intersection well over the speed limit, the white markings they're driving over is left over from a police investigation where a bicyclist was hit by a car Tuesday night.
"Very few people pay attention to everything that's going on around them and that's everybody, that's cars not paying attention to people on bikes, bikes not paying attention to people in cars, skateboards, people walking," says Alan Bleecker, President of Milpas Community Association.
Flooded with cars, pedestrians and bicyclists, Milpas Street has a high accident zone, but for Megan Gomez there's only so much she can do.
"For bicyclists we have to be on the lookout for, just the traffic here, I mean it says there's a bike lane but there is no bike lane we share the road," says Megan Gomez, a local bicyclist.
"In the last five years we've had 16 fatal traffic collisions in the city of Santa Barbara, 10 of those fatalities involve pedestrians," says Sergeant Riley Harwood, Santa Barbara Police Department.
Last year, 15-year-old Sergio Romero was hit and killed by a truck on the corner of Milpas and Ortega streets.
"The fact that there are so many accidents happening in this area is due to people not paying attention to what's going on around them," says Bleecker.
Some pedestrians say they are forced to take a different route.
"I try to take the back streets whenever I'm going so there's less cars," says David Rojas, a Santa Barbara pedestrian.
Central Coast News reached out the the Mayor Schneider to see what she had to say but have not received a call back as of Wednesday evening. According to the Milpas Community Association, the city is planning to install flashing yellow crosswalk lights.
