"This was one of the toughest battles I've ever faced and I overcame my physical injuries, but, as you can all imagine, the emotional scars this accident left with me," she said.
It was after this incident that Stahl, 14 at the time, went to the council to speak on how dangerous the intersection was, not only for herself, but for four others who had been hit in the same location, she said. Now, a Sept. 7 accident at the same location that injured four, leaving a 3-month-old girl dead, has brought her back to the council.
"There are no words to express the sadness I have in my heart," she said.
The baby was being pushed in her stroller across the intersection by her mother and an 11-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy. A Toyota Tacoma stopped to let them cross, but was rear-ended by a Chevrolet Tahoe that pushed the car into the pedestrians.
The baby died and the mother and 11-year-old girl were left in critical condition. The accident is still under investigation, police Lt. Russell Reinhart said.
Stahl's father, Robert Stahl, said he has seen numerous accidents at the intersection and questioned whether the 3-month-old could still be alive now if something had been done when his daughter spoke out 25 years ago.
"Could we have saved a child's life with a traffic signal 25 years ago?" he asked.
The intersection has seen numerous accidents and is a dangerous place to cross, about a dozen residents attested to at the meeting. The intersection was also one of seven locations cut from the list of city-funded crossing guards this year.
