LATHROP – The busiest street in Woodfield Estates is about to get a pair of stop signs.

The Lathrop City Council voted unanimously last week to approve the installation of two stop signs on Long Barn Drive where it intersects with Woodfield Drive to create a three-way stop. It’s an attempt, they say, to curb excessive speeding on the collector streets that loop throughout the entire neighborhood.

Back in May the council heard a story from Army Sergeant Ernesto Rodriguez about a drunken driver that lost control when towing a boat and ended up taking out a parked car before careening across Rodriguez’ driveway and ending up on his neighbor’s lawn.

The driver, he said, was going more than twice the posted speed limit.

While that accident occurred during the middle of the night, Rodriguez told the council that motorist along Long Barn Drive routinely fly past his house at double the speed limit. It is forcing him to re-examine whether to let his children play in the front yard out of fear that that sort of accident could be repeated with tragic results.

“What I think about is safety first both in my career and with my family,” Rodriguez said to the council during the May meeting. “Am I going to let my kids play outside? No. I’m not willing to put their lives in jeopardy every time they walk out the front door.

“You can’t put a price on human life, especially when you’re talking about your children. They are our future.”

Councilman Sonny Dhaliwal, who also lives in Woodfield Estates, took the agenda item a step further by attaching an addendum that will require the installation of crosswalks at the intersection of Long Barn Drive and Woodfield Drives. Residents routinely cross that street to get to the park, he said. It becomes dangerous when cars refuse to slow down or acknowledge their presence.

But while adding the stop sign seemed like the logical thing to do, the council did so against the advice of Public Works Director Steve Salvatore.

Salvatore told the council that because Long Barn Drive is a collector street that serves the entire neighborhood, it doesn’t qualify under the Manual on Uniformed Traffic Control Devices. Using a formula that measures the total number of crashes, the 85th percentile of the average speed through the intersection, and the volume of the vehicles passing through, the intersection, Salvatore said, doesn’t meet the standards.

“Stop signs don’t slow down traffic, they stop it,” Salvatore said.

Adding a pair of stop signs to complement the existing one on Woodfield Drive and adding the necessary road striping will end up costing the city $1,500.