Victim of Tualatin Valley crosswalk collision recovers, ODOT plans signal

By Jennifer Meacham and KATU News Published: Jan 17, 2010 at 6:26 PM PST Last Updated: Jan 25, 2010 at 1:46 PM PST
George Johnson, 14, after his Dec. 20 accident
George Johnson, 14, after the Dec. 20 accident at a Tualatin Valley Highway crosswalk that changed his life forever.

ALOHA, Ore. – A dangerous Tualatin Valley Highway intersection between Beaverton and Aloha will get its new pedestrian traffic signal one year ahead of schedule.

The decision was made at an Oregon Transportation Commission meeting Thursday. The move pushes up construction from 2012 to 2011 of a $1.2 million pedestrian-activated traffic signal project at Northwest 178th Avenue, which is in the state’s top 5 percent of roads reporting crashes.

The move comes too late to help 14-year-old George Johnson.

The scene of the Sunday crash that knocked three kids out of their shoes He was one of three youths injured Dec. 20 while heading home from the 7-11 convenience store at that dark highway intersection.

George recalls seeing a headlight coming toward him as he and two younger girls walked past a car stopped at the marked TV Highway crosswalk. Then he remembers "doing somersaults in the air" before coming to rest on the ground with the wind knocked out of him. "I thought I was going to die," he reportedly told his mother.

After weeks in intensive care, the middle school football and basketball player is home at last. However, he won't be playing sports again anytime soon.

"He is still under treatment," said his mother Jennifer Johnson. "They have to wait for his swelling to go down to assess doing any operations to open up his skull."

With a broken arm, two broken teeth, damage to his eyes and facial reconstruction needed, George still has a long road of recovery ahead.

"The hardest thing for him is when he was in the hospital and the doctor was talking about having to put a metal plate in his head, and saying that would be the end of football for him if they did," said George's mother, Jennifer Johnson. "Even though my son had been in a lot of pain, that was the first time that he really broke down and cried."

George is going to be in high school next year, and has been playing football and basketball for years.

"For the past two years the coaches had been watching him and saying that he had a really good chance at a college scholarship; that was his dream," Jennifer Johnson said. "He would be the first in the immediate family to get a four-year degree."

Meanwhile, the Oregon Department of Transportation is moving forward with an interim solar-powered "rapid flashing beacon" and could begin installation within the next few weeks. ODOT's action comes after a KATU's July investigation into "What will it take to make this crosswalk safe?," coupled with several serious pedestrian accidents there including this one with George, his 10-year-old sister and a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

The Portland Tribune reports that "Lights and push buttons for the beacon will be on both sides of the highway and in the concrete median. There will be signs and pavement markings directing traveling vehicles to stop 50 feet from the pedestrian crossing."

NOTE: A fund to support the teen's continued treatment has been set up at Wells Fargo. Make a donation at any Wells Fargo under the name of George Johnson.