Ocean Beach Elementary Wants Safety Improvements on Crosswalks

By Steve Anderson / Times of San Diego / August 27, 2026

Summer has come to an end for our little OBceans as they made their way back to the classroom two weeks ago. However, the focus in our community remains on the outside of schools, particularly the roads surrounding them.

In October 2025, three children were struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross the street outside of Pershing Middle School in San Carlos. One student, Andrew Olsen, was killed while his two siblings sustained injuries.

Since then the San Diego Unified School District has been attentive toward school speed limits and safer crosswalks. If you haven’t noticed, Ocean Beach Elementary sits on one of the busiest roads in our community.

This school year, leadership at OB Elementary has requested safety improvements along the surrounding roads. Those improvements include building crosswalks with pedestrian activated flashing lights, adding four speed readers at the intersections on Santa Monica Avenue and Newport Avenue, adding 16 signs at crosswalks that inform drivers of state laws to stop for pedestrians and putting up no parking signs at bus loading zones for students.

The current traffic safety around OB Elementary does include some of these signs already, including freestanding signs reminding people to yield to people crossing and have the words “state law” brandished across them. These are placed at intersections near the school on Santa Monica Avenue crosswalks. However, the ones on Newport Avenue are currently dilapidated and somewhat difficult to read.

Currently, the intersections at Saratoga, Newport and Santa Monica Avenue are just like any standard crosswalk aside from the yellow-striped crosswalks that indicate to drivers it’s a school zone — or at least now you know the yellow is an intentional choice if you didn’t before.