Dead man's corner?

Most residents may put a sign or two on their lawns that promote a favored political candidate. But last week, Long Beach resident Richard Boodman had a contractor post seven custom-made signs — most of them blaming the Republican administration in Long Beach for a man’s death —across the wooden deck that wraps around his East Olive Street home.

Two of the signs posted on Sept. 23 read: “If you ride your bicycle in Long Beach you may be killed. A bicyclist was killed on August 28, 2008. All way stop signs are a must. The Republican Party refuses to listen,” and “Dead man’s corner: We need all way stop signs and strict enforcement. If this corner had a stop sign, a bicyclist might not have died.”

Two days later, a News 12 crew showed up and reported on Boodman, and his story was broadcast that night every hour on the hour. His mission is to bring attention to what he said is the City of Long Beach’s failure to put up three-way stop signs at the intersection of East Olive Street and Monroe Boulevard. He believes the two stop signs that are there now were insufficient to save Joseph Shannon, a 76-year-old Florida man who collided with a school bus while riding his bicycle on Monroe Boulevard at East Olive Street on July 28, 2008.

Shannon was riding his bike in the northbound lane of Monroe Boulevard just before 9 a.m. when he was struck by the bus, which was traveling west on East Olive, according to police. Shannon was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside and put on life support, but died on July 30.

“I’m making a statement every day,” Boodman said about his signs. “This is not about politics, it’s about life and death. When I walk outside I think of that man and it’s just not right. The inconsistency of the stops signs in the City of Long Beach put people’s lives at risk. And, of course, in Mr. Shannon’s case, if there were a stop sign there he would be alive.”

Boodman maintains that since the Republican administration was elected in 2004, he and fellow resident Bob Shanley have written letters to and addressed the City Council, putting them on notice about what the two men regard as dangerous conditions at that intersection. Boodman argued that the city’s placement of stop signs in the area is confusing and that the City Council has neglected to address the safety issues.

"They have not seriously addressed the issues,” said Boodman. “They've just paid lip service to it."

Saying he is neither Democrat nor Republican, Boodman said that he posted the signs now, about six weeks before the Nov. 3 election, because about a month ago the city put up the final all-way stop at an intersection on Lincoln Boulevard. “And I waited and they didn’t put it up on my corner,” he said of a stop sign that he maintained was promised him.

Boodman said that the city conducted a survey in 2004, after which it put up additional stop signs on boulevards that intersect with East Olive, and that the result was a 50 percent reduction in traffic accidents.

But City Manager Charles Theofan said that the traffic department analyzed Boodman’s request for stop signs on his corner and concluded that the two signs at that intersection are sufficient.

“There are people in this town who would want to see a stop sign on every corner in four-way traffic,” Theofan said. “But I think any traffic engineer would tell you that that’s just not a way to approach traffic control.”

Calling Boodman’s signs “a political exploitation of a tragedy,” Theofan charged that during the two years the Democrats were in the majority he did nothing. “Why aren’t the Democrats equally guilty?” he asked.

In June, attorney Ed Paltzik filed a wrongful-death suit against the city and the Long Beach School District on behalf of the family of Joseph Shannon. The bus driver, Debra Hodge of Oceanside, is an employee of the school district.

The city’s corporation counsel, Corey Klein, said that while the accident was tragic, the city is not liable, and that the existing traffic signs already control traffic in that intersection. “There’s no questions here involving the proper signage as far as we’re concerned,” Klein said.

Theofan added that “the poor gentleman who was hit was going the wrong way on the side of Monroe Boulevard, going against the traffic, and the bus driver did stop at the stop sign and then hit him. This would not have been prevented with the stop sign that Boodman wants.”

Shannon’s wife, Joan, told the Herald that she was encouraged by the “protest signs” that Boodman posted. “I’m very appreciative that he has taken an interest in it,” she said. “But I’m still stunned. My husband was a perfectly healthy man just out enjoying a bike ride.”

Boodman said he will continue to pursue the matter until he has a stop sign on his corner, and every intersection where he believes they are needed has them, too. “We are a recreational town,” he said. “We shouldn’t be told to ride our bikes just on the boardwalk.”

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.