While police were responding to a teen hit by a car at the corner of Main and Second streets, one driver rear-ended another on Main Street in Los Altos.
"That's a killer intersection," said Sharon Clayton, who works downtown at Cudahy Paint & Wallpaper. "It is really, really terrible. There should be a four-way stop."
The first accident happened at 10:07 a.m., July 6, when a 13-year-old boy stepped out from behind a motor home parked on Second Street, and was hit by a driver turning onto Second Street from Main Street.
Officer Tracy Gurecki with the Los Altos Police Department explained the situation as, "He's not looking, he steps into traffic," and the woman, driving a green Toyota Camry, "doesn't see the kid."
The boy was listed as the primary cause of the accident, said police Sgt. Mark Macaulay.
The youth complained of pain in his right ankle and had cuts and abrasions, police said. Paramedics took him to El Camino Hospital.
The youth and his grandparents were in town from Nevada. They had been driving the motor home, which they parked on Second Street across from Le Boulanger, police said.
About 20 minutes after the teen was hit, a woman driving a gray Lincoln Continental heading toward Foothill Expressway on Main Street, rear-ended a man in a teal-colored Honda Accord.
Police said the victims of the second accident were "rubber neckers." The man was treated for possible neck strain.
The congested traffic of both cars and pedestrians at this intersection has long been a concern to area residents.
In 1996, Los Altos Hills resident John Gorzynski conducted his own personal campaign for pedestrian safety at that particular corner. From 9:30-10:12 a.m., on Dec. 23, he noted six cars that failed to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk, and two more cars that blocked the crosswalk.
He helped 28 people cross the street. "I'm worrying about tomorrow and a child being hit," he said in an interview with the Town Crier on Jan. 7, 1997.