SHORELINE, Wash. — KIRO 7 spoke with Shoreline leaders to get answers after a family, including a child in a stroller, was hit by a car.
The family members said they had no choice but to walk on the shoulder of busy 196th Street Northeast, which is an area with no sidewalks.
Ten years ago, the area was noted as being dangerous.
The city told KIRO 7 it wants to add a sidewalk, but could not provide a specific timeline of when that would happen.
Stormy Curtis and her three children were walking on the narrow shoulder of 196th Street Northeast on Wednesday afternoon when a car came from behind and hit them.
Her son Josiah was tossed from the road in his stroller and managed to escape with bruises and cuts.
"Thank God for the stroller because if Josiah had been walking, I don't know what would have happened," Angelica Ramsui, a relative of the victim, said.
"A car just crashed into him and he flew into the bushes,” Cage, an accident victim, said.
"That is scary,” Andrea Gardee, a Shoreline native, said.
Those who live nearby said it can be a dangerous place to walk.
"They should have seen her pushing the baby in the stroller with her kids,” said Gardee.
"They should do something about that, because there's, like, little kids coming off from school at 3:30 (p.m.) so there should be sidewalks in there," Shamrai Day, a Shoreline native, said.
"We are heartbroken that occurred,” John Norris, Shoreline’s assistant city manager, said. “Our thoughts are with the family."
Norris said the city is working on a planning process that includes reviewing road segments in that area.
"I think we've seen, and have heard loudly from our community, that sidewalks are so important (with) pedestrian safety being the most important aspect of creating our sidewalk network so pedestrians can have a safe place to travel," said Norris.
Norris said the city would need to cover 75 miles in all to build out Shoreline's entire sidewalk network.
"And we've had estimates that will cost up to $337 million dollars,” said Norris.
Where would the money come from?
"Ultimately, that's up to the City Council. As part of this prioritization planning process and our citizen advisory committee process, they've looked at multiple funding sources,” said Norris. “(For example it could come from) property tax, sales tax (or) vehicle license fees."
Norris said the next step is to go to the City Council with a final plan. This summer, the City Council could determine what resources would be needed to implement that plan.
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