Neighbors, family members, elected officials and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways gathered Saturday to walk in remembrance of James St. Clair and to call for a safer 35th Ave SW.

“I just hope my uncle’s death is not in vain,” St. Clair’s niece Darlene Saxby told KOMO. “I think it would make him happy if he knew his sacrifice could help others.”

His death in late December is the most recent of at least five deaths that have occurred on the street since 2006.

City Council Transportation Chair and West Seattle resident Tom Rasmussen was at the walk, and city officials said they would conduct a traffic study on the street to determine what options there are to improve safety.

For more, including some heartbreaking videos, see West Seattle Blog’s coverage of the walk.

Meanwhile, after a woman was struck — but not seriously injured — while crossing the street at 20th Ave NW and NW 57th St, the Ballard News Tribune asked: “Does it really take a death to get some action” on road safety?

Certainly, the city needs to invest to to their best to prevent devastating road collisions from happening again. But when are we going to invest enough that we can actually get ahead of the collisions, preventing them before another person like James St. Clair is killed.

Here’s the KOMO TV report: (more…)