By all accounts Stan Isaacs was an exceptional man. Friends say he was kind, generous and selfless. When he pushed his wife, Cathy, away from a speeding car on Coast Highway, he became the hero he always was.
Isaacs, 60, died Aug. 11, just after 9:30 p.m. He and Cathy were walking back to their car, feeling safe in the flashing crosswalk at Pearl Street. Apparently, they were celebrating an anniversary at Ristorante Rumari.
Unfortunately, now, Isaacs becomes one of Laguna Beach’s many accident statistics.
For decades, Laguna has been one of the most unsafe cities for pedestrians. For a city its size, Laguna consistently ranks in the top five for most dangerous walking cities in the state, according to police and state records.
In fact, the California Office of Traffic and Safety says Laguna is the fourth worst city in the state for pedestrian accidents. Excessive speed is almost always the problem.
In 2019, the most recent year available, Laguna had 14 pedestrians killed or injured. By comparison, Dana Point had seven. Why the difference? Basically, road design. The improvements to Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point have forced drivers to slow down.
In Laguna, we’re lucky to get new paint on a dimly lit crosswalk.
To be fair, there have been improvements to Laguna’s intersections, but it’s been too long in coming. Plus, the reality is more pedestrian accidents happen at signalized intersections because walkers feel safe. Old-fashioned, non-lighted crosswalks force pedestrians to remain extra vigilant, which means fewer accidents.
But in the stretch of South Coast Highway near Pearl Street where Isaacs was killed, it’s like a freeway. Starting at Calliope Street going south, it’s the first real time that drivers have cleared the busy bottlenecks of midtown. They speed because they can.
And with speed, distraction and dark streets come danger.
We don’t know yet why the driver, Sysillia Morrison Montes De Oca, 18, of Costa Mesa, was speeding – the police said she was – or if she was distracted. But we do know that Laguna’s streets are still far from safe.
Glenneyre Street is nearly as worse as Coast Hwy. Statistically, every year Glenneyre from Thalia to downtown has more than one accident on almost every corner.
Every corner in Laguna Beach seemingly has issues. No place is safe.
I used to live off Pearl Street. For years, I would tell my three beach-bound sons to be vigilant as they crossed that same intersection where Isaacs died.
“Be careful,” I would say, as they left the house, fins and boards in tow. “Wait for the cars to stop. Watch that far lane.”
“We know, dad,” they would say.
I held my breath every time.
So when I saw that Isaacs died at Pearl Street, my heart sank.
It was suddenly personal. I didn’t know Isaacs but we had 30 mutual friends on Facebook, which means something. Even though he lived in Costa Mesa, he was friends with a lot of people in Laguna Beach, which is how it is. You are never far from someone else.
We all know someone like Isaacs.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/51adc731.
The driver, Morrison Montes De Oca, was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and felony hit and run.
She was just 18. So young. She probably panicked.
And we’re left wondering, could this have been prevented?
Absolutely.
