Earlier this afternoon, Albuquerque Mayor Keller and City Council pledged $300,000 for a HAWK signal at the intersection of Louisiana Blvd. and Natalie Ave., site of last Thursday death of a 12-year-old crossing the street at the existent crosswalk there.

We’ll have a few words on that tomorrow morning. In the interim, here’s a photo taken this afternoon at a similar mid-block intersection crossing, Isleta Blvd. and Clinton Blvd., in the far South Valley:

That’s a BernCo contracted crew putting fresh crosswalk striping at this intersection, one directly at El Camino Real Academy charter school, and just down the street from Adobe Acres Elementary and Harrison Middle School. Approximately 2000 students attend classes within a 3/8ths-mile radius of this intersection.

I have no idea if this work is in any way related to last week’s death, but having volunteered to spend hours watching traffic video of this intersection, it can use all the crosswalk help, visual and otherwise, it can get. It’s uniformly scary video, all day…all night.

Perhaps last week death can lead to safer crossing infrastructure not only at Louisiana and Natalie, but all over town. Maybe too, both motorist education and traffic enforcement can be improved as well. More about that tomorrow morning.