MISSION PARK GUARD STRUCK ON JOB DIES
Police haven't decided whether to charge driver
By ZACHARY STAHL
The Salinas Californian
A 76-year-old crossing guard died this weekend, more than two weeks after he was hit by a car in front of Mission Park School in Salinas. James Maloney of Salinas was taken off life support Jan. 22 and died Saturday, just three hours after arriving at a Salinas rehabilitation center from San Jose, said his wife, Beverly Maloney.
"He just wanted to come home, I guess," Maloney said Monday. "I saw him and ... by the time I got home, they told me he was gone."
A Jaguar driven by Tarek Amin, 54, struck Maloney on West Acacia Street at Marion Avenue just before 8 a.m. Jan. 12. Salinas police haven't filed charges against Amin and are still investigating who was at fault.
Salinas police Sgt. Bob Eggers said Amin, a Salinas resident, could face misdemeanor or felony manslaughter charges if the investigation finds he was negligent.
A time and distance analysis will determine whether the driver had enough time to stop, Eggers said.
"We have to make doubly sure that there is no culpability on the part of the pedestrian before we file charges on the driver," said Eggers, who also serves as a trustee for the Salinas City Elementary School District, which includes Mission Park.
Police investigators will likely announce their findings next week, he said. Meanwhile, parent volunteers are filling in as crossing guards at Mission Park, said Principal Diane Middaugh.
Students were given the news of Maloney's death Monday morning and created posters thanking him for his more than a year of service as a crossing guard at the school.
"He'll really be missed," Middaugh said. "Anyone who drove by got the wave." The school plans to provide counseling services and a support room for students who need help coping with the loss. Salinas police will train volunteers to form a parent patrol at Mission Park, Middaugh said.
Maloney will be remembered as a friendly crossing guard, known as "Officer Jim," who loved talking with students and parents. Maloney retired as a street-sweeper supervisor with the city of Salinas when he was 55 but stayed active by working as a security guard and crossing guard, Beverly Maloney said.
Maloney's services were donated to Mission Park by Jeff Waters, vice president of the Achates Security Agency in Salinas, after crossing guards were cut from the city budget in June 2004.
"I am sorry that somebody had to hit him and hurt him," Beverly Maloney said. "At the rate he was going, he could have lived to be 100." Beverly and James Maloney married in 1949; they had been childhood sweethearts while growing up in Salinas.
"He has just been my whole life," Beverly Maloney said. "Somebody stole my life."
The accident rallied parents at Mission Park to sign a letter to the City Council asking for the immediate reinstatement of the crossing guard program, which was cut when the city slashed its budget in 2004, and for the reduction of the speed limit in school zones from 25 mph to 15 mph. State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, has introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would do just that.
There is expected to be a strong showing of advocates for improved school safety at a Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting Feb. 9. "I think we need four-way stops all around the school to stop these people from speeding around schools," Beverly Maloney said. Contact Zachary Stahl at [email protected].