When it comes to road rage, unsafe streets and speeding drivers in Vallejo, everyone seems to have a story to tell.

Many of the tales center around Sonoma Boulevard, the city's most highly traveled street. Tennessee Street, Georgia Street and Curtola Parkway fall close behind, said Vallejo police Lt. Joel Salinas, head of the traffic division.

For Salinas, a 20-year department veteran, the traffic fatality that stands in sharpest relief was that of 6-year-old Joanie Marcos, who was crossing Tennessee and Sutter streets with her 14-year-old sister when the two were struck by a motorist in 2005. Community outcry was one of the largest Salinas has experienced in vehicle-versus-pedestrian incidents, he said.

"This caused a lot of stir

in the community about what we should do about that intersection," he said.

The driver, the Rev. Albert Lee White, an associate minister at the Highway Church of God in Christ, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to six months in county jail. He said he had not been able to see through his foggy windows at the time of the accident.

Salinas said the 2005 fatality was the only one at that intersection during his career, although a Vallejo woman carrying a baby was struck in the same intersection in 2004. The mother was knocked to the ground and her legs were broken.

Beyond Vallejo traffic fatalities, of which there are an average seven to 10 a year - typically single-car crashes - Salinas said the public's most

frequent cause for complaint is speeding drivers.

On the afternoon of June 29, an 11-year-old Vallejo girl was hit by a vehicle in what family members said was a speed-related incident. The girl was running down Magazine Street when she was struck, sustaining a head injury and scrapes. Police were unsure at the time if the driver had been speeding on the posted 25-mile-per-hour street.

Police reports show the spots where freeway exits join city streets are often high-speed areas, Salinas

said. A ball- field fence at a curve in Curtola Parkway, which carries traffic to and from interstates 80 and 780, has borne the brunt of plenty of single-vehicle collisions, Salinas said.

Florin Holm, a 78-year-old retired Vallejo firefighter and lifelong Vallejo resident, has an ideal position from which to watch city traffic patterns. He is the owner of West Hubcaps & Bikes on Sonoma Boulevard, near Florida Street.

Holm, who does not consider Vallejo any less safe a place for drivers than other Bay Area cities, said driver behavior in general has shifted dramatically in his lifetime. Whether it is due to the increased maneuverability and speed of smaller vehicles, the increased volume of traffic or a loss of basic driver etiquette, getting in the car for a drive is just not the same for Holm.

"Cars nowadays, they can get up to 50 miles per hour in a block," Holm said. "Everybody's going too damn fast and speeding. They're going through the intersections too fast. If it says 25 miles per hour, they're going 40."

Other bad habits

Tailgating, general road rage and improper stop sign etiquette are just a few of the driver habits that irk Holm.

"It's not fun to drive no more," Holm said. "There's too many people who aren't considerate of other drivers I get angry too, but I try not to take it out on people."

MOST DANGEROUS Vallejo streets where the most collisions were recorded in April and May: • Sonoma Boulevard: 24 collisions • Tennessee Street: 13 collisions • Georgia Street: 11 collissions Source: Vallejo Police Department

Resident Maria Guevara said being a pedestrian on Vallejo's busier streets is a dangerous undertaking. Guevara is a founding member of a Tennessee Street revitalization effort and her focus has been on a cooperative merchant effort in the area. She tells the story of a friend who fearlessly crosses the street - assuming crosswalks offer her protection. That mindset has led to plenty of close calls with vehicles, Guevara said.

"No one stops for pedestrians anymore," Guevara said. "It's like a race and no one stops anymore."

Guevara said she thinks pedestrians should be a priority in the city's traffic safety plans and would like to see some kind of police sting on drivers who ignore pedestrians, an operation that has been undertaken successfully in other cities.

Fellow Team Tennessee volunteer Lyndy Pickens said she is working to get a pilot pedestrian safety measure going on a small section of Tennessee Street.

At a City Council meeting last month, Councilwoman Joanne Schivley asked Police Chief Robert Nichelini about special cameras that record drivers running red lights at intersections. Nichelini said the council should see a presentation on the cameras, possibly next month.

Salinas feared that drivers running red lights at individual intersections may not be of a high enough volume to justify the devices' cost to the city.

One way Salinas said he feels the department could cut down on traffic collisions, though, would be through officers working specifically to curtail drunk driving. Two officers, have been funded through state and county grants to focus on high-risk drivers.

Curtailing collisions on Vallejo streets could also involve improvements to dangerous intersections, resident Dariece Warren wrote in an e-mail.

Warren wrote that crossing Sacramento Street by car or foot - at Capitol Street is hazardous without a stop sign in place because of a nearby view-obscuring hill. Also, Georgia Street at Sutter Street seems to attract its share of collisions, Warren said.

"I once saw two wrecks within days of each other at that intersection," Warren wrote. "Cars fly down Georgia over the hill, making it extremely dangerous for crossing cars and pedestrians."

• Contact Jessica A. York at 553-6834 or at jyork@thnewsnet.com.