NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) — A grieving partner and a local business owner are pushing for safety improvements at a National City intersection where two people have died.
Andrea Fernandez lost her partner, Alejandro Contreras, two years ago at the intersection near Sweetwater Road. Contreras was walking across Sweetwater Road in the middle of the night when he was hit and killed by a drunk driver who did not stop. At the time, the crosswalk signal at the intersection was not working.
Fernandez said her grief now fuels her mission to improve safety at the intersection.
"It's a huge community hazard, I think there needs to be regular street lights," Fernandez said.
After ABC 10News' original report on the crash in September 2024, the crosswalk lights were back on and flashing.
However, videos Fernandez took just a few days ago shows at least one signal is not working again.
Fernandez is not the only one pushing for change.
Micaela Polanco, who runs the La Vista Memorial Park & Mortuary around the corner where Contreras is now buried, said she has also been urging the City to act.
"We need better lighting because it's very dark here at night," Polanco said.
National City Mayor Ron Morrison responded to ABC 10News' request for comments and said that at that time two years ago, the City looked into Contreras' death and determined that the street lighting at the intersection was not a significant factor. Morrison also said that the National City Police Department had turned off the signal lights when they arrived on scene with Contreras and had forgotten to power them back on after the scene cleared. The department turned them back on shortly after the realization.
Morrison also said that the City considered safety improvements last November and was prepared to spend half a million dollars on additional signal lights, but the project was scrapped due to opposition from residents in the unincorporated Lincoln Acres area.
Fernandez said she is not giving up. She has launched a Change.org petition to improve lighting on Sweetwater Road, hoping to get results at the state level. Fernandez said the petition needs 1,000 signatures to reach the Governor's desk and is currently about 300 signatures short.
"I don't want any more families to have to feel like how I feel or lose their loved ones, people need to make it home safely," Fernandez said. "That's the only peace I get. Putting his story out there."
