Recent photo of the "tire monster"

A sign warning of the ultra-slender median on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard (at Voltaire) was run over sometime during the early hours of March 7.

Karen Hoffman (not her real name), who lives nearby the intersection, has dubbed the median the “tire monster.” She remembers seeing it appear before Thanksgiving 2015 with no warning signs.

"Before the city put warning signs up, the median was almost invisible," Hoffman said on March 10. "It [was] gray, so it just blended in….

"It's terrible for such a high-traffic area. A turn signal would have been a much better idea. Cars cross right over it to make a left all the time. I've seen several drivers hit the median and blow out their tires and send their hubcaps flying. I've seen that at least seven to eight times….”

Tire monster sometime in November 2015

The worst incident Hoffman says she witnessed was in November 2015, before the median had been painted.

“I saw an old homeless man, about 65 to 70 years old, trip right over the median and fall into oncoming traffic. If it hadn't been late at night with less traffic, he would have been killed."

Hoffman doesn't remember seeing a warning sign until about three weeks after the median appeared.

On March 11, Bill Harris of the city's Streets Division said that records indicated the median was installed in September 2015, with warning signs installed a few days later. Harris said, "It was a condition of the adjacent development that was going up around the same time. It was meant to help traffic flow and to control left turns."

Even though multiple residents say they recall the median warning sign being destroyed more than once, Harris said, "We are unaware of any other incidents. There is no report of a repair. We do, however, have street crews that are self-directing; they might have fixed the sign and it didn't count."

Harris said the cost of repairing the recently downed sign will be $100.

When asked if there are flexible signs that could withstand a hit from a car, Harris said, "There are such things, though I'm not sure it would be appropriate for this median. We are bound by the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices state-wide requirements. For this location, the traffic engineer team did not believe a flexible sign was allowed."

On March 10, I asked John Ambert, the chair of the Ocean Beach planning board, if this median gets more action than others in the area. Ambert replied, "This is a busy intersection that often gets crowded from people leaving dog beach and heading north to the freeway. While I wouldn't say running over medians is the norm, this intersection may be different because it sees a high volume of traffic."

Regarding the penalty for anyone destroying a median warning sign, Mark Herring from the San Diego Police Department told me on March 11, "The penalty varies based on the value of the sign and the person’s criminal history."

Herring directed me to the California Penal Code 594 covering vandalism. Because in this case the repair cost is less than $400, if convicted the penalty would be up to one year in a county jail and/or up to a $1000 fine. If previously convicted on a similar offense, the fine can go as high as $5000.

As of March 11, Hoffman confirmed that no cones or signage are on the median.