With tragedies like the recent attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day, safety at large gatherings is in the spotlight.
It’s not unheard of to find incidents around the world where large masses of people were targeted or endangered by a vehicle.
“A location where there's lots of people that are showing up and they're there in the same area, we've got to have some kind of control over that,” said Lieutenant Caleb Kemp with the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
Anything can happen, even in San Luis Obispo, rewinding the clock back to April of 2000, KSBY covered the story of a 17-year-old who broke into the British Sports Cars shop on Marsh Street, stole a Range Rover and drove it into the Thursday night farmer’s market.
“The police were actually getting onto our roof when they saw him jump through," British Sports Car technician Justin Jurgens recalls, "Then he came through and he jumped in where the Corvette is here, jumped in a Range Rover, and then drove right through the front doors.”
The teen turned onto Garden Street where he ran through a section of the weekly farmer's market injuring a couple of people.
Fast forward to 2022, when the city brought in around 50 movable meridian crash barricades that are used at large events around downtown like the farmer's market, Concerts in the Plaza and the Christmas Parade.
“They are put out at strategic locations to keep vehicles from entering the highly populated areas," said Nemo Stephenson the city's Public Works Superintendent of Streets and Maintenance.
In what is designated as zone 9 or the main downtown corridor, Stephenson said that depending on the event, all barricades can get used. For the Holiday Parade and the weekly farmer's Market, they all get used.
At Mission Plaza, there are also bollards or metal cylinders in place at the entrances to insure a similar purpose; keeping out unauthorized vehicles. In August of 2022, a car lost control turning onto Chorro Street and ended up being stopped by the bollards.
But with recent worldwide events, the conversation still revolves around making sure that these highly populated areas in downtown stay safe.
“The blockades that they've now started putting up, are a good thing," said Jurgens, "There could definitely be more. There's a lot of ways around those blockades.”
So far, there have been no reported incidents involving the crash barricades since their implementation in 2022.
“We're always looking for potential weak spots like areas that might be exploited because maybe we didn't think about it or didn't view it as a problem,” Kemp added.
Lieutenant Kemp also explained that the police department is keeping a close eye on incidents like the one in New Orleans and others happening internationally, across the country and in our state as well.
