Debra Towne’s death on Capitola’s Bay Avenue shocks community, igniting demands for change

Debra “Debby” Towne was a caregiver who loved to dance. She had dreams of going to Hawaii and cherished Christmas cookie baking with family and friends.  

And at age 70, the resident of a seniors housing complex in Capitola still loved to walk, spending many evenings walking her dog with longtime friend Ray Travers after they both got off work.

Towne’s Nov. 18 death as she passed through a crosswalk on Bay Avenue while out on one of those evening walks has sparked an outcry in Capitola, a peaceful beach town that has previously resisted efforts to install more traffic signals along a stretch of road that residents say has grown increasingly dangerous as traffic volumes have increased. 

On Thursday, the Capitola City Council will begin discussing designs with a $50,000 budget for short-term fixes to an intersection near where Towne was killed. However, longer-term fixes, such as whether to replace a four-way stop with a traffic signal, are still being explored. Towne’s family members and residents of the nearby seniors housing where Towne lived say the planned changes are coming too late and that more needs to be done to improve safety in the area.

“I feel like they’re just taking way too long,” said Adrienne West, Towne’s daughter. “[City officials] need to do something, even if it’s minor improvements for now. Show some action for goodness’ sake.” 

‘She was just a super considerate, loving person‘

Originally from the Southern California community of Pomona, Towne moved to the Live Oak neighborhood as a child and stayed in Santa Cruz for the rest of her life. 

She participated in Girl Scouts and worked as a “candy striper,” or an aide, at Dominican Hospital, bringing towels or delivering flowers to patients. At a young age, she developed a love of dancing, which got her jobs performing at the old Santa’s Village in Scotts Valley and at senior homes.

Her favorite kind of dancing was Polynesian, which she did with her best friend Jacinta Maiva McGinnis for the next several decades. Towne hoped to one day visit Hawaii and be immersed in the culture she admired so much, but she never got the chance. 

 “We raised our children together, going to the beach, Twin Lakes Beach, having birthday parties,” said McGinnis, 70. “She was just a super considerate, loving person. She loved everybody’s kids. We had our whole lives being best friends.” 

Towne attended Soquel High School, where she met her husband, Martin Towne, who attended Harbor High. They married in the early 1970s and had West and her two brothers. 

Outside of work, Towne enjoyed staying engaged, always wanting to “do all the things,” West said, like visiting her kids’ classrooms, field trips with Girl Scouts and baking cupcakes for birthday celebrations.  

The Townes ran a roofing business for which Debby was the bookkeeper. The family closed the business after Martin died in 2015 from ocular cancer, and Towne struggled with the loss of her husband, her daughter said: “I feel like she never truly got over that.”

Towne sold the family home around 2017 and lived as an in-house caregiver for clients for a short period before moving into the Bay Avenue Senior Apartments at 750 Bay Ave., not far from the intersection where she was struck.

“She loved it there,” said West. “It’s a really close community.” 

Towne enjoyed having her own space, being able to live with her dog — a Queensland heeler named Spot — and having access to all the businesses in the Nob Hill Foods shopping center nearby. 

Ray Travers, 62, first met Martin Towne when he was just 17 years old. He’s been friends with the family since then. 

He said Debby Towne worked late into the night making sure the people she looked after were well taken care of. Often the two would spend evenings walking Spot after they both got off work. “It’s hard work at her age,” he said. “But she liked to walk, I’ll tell you.” 

On the night of the accident the pair met up around 8 p.m. for their evening walk. By 8:30 p.m. they said their goodbyes near the corner of Crossroads Loop and Bay Avenue. 

Travers turned away from the corner to walk eastward on Crossroads Loop toward his car and Towne walked to the crosswalk to go southbound on Bay Avenue across Crossroads Loop toward her home. 

With his back to the crosswalk, Travers didn’t see the collision. As he neared his car, he turned and saw a dark SUV that had driven up Bay Avenue onto Crossroads Loop hit a curb and turn into the parking lot of the nearby shopping plaza.

“I saw this car hitting the curb and going up and down on it. It was like an SUV and I’m like, ‘Ah, they’re drunk,’” he said. The car rolled through the parking lot before driving away. “They went through there slowly, obviously they were shaken up.” 

After watching the car leave, Travers then looked back toward Bay Avenue. He spotted the light from the flashlight Towne always carried with her on their night walks. It was lying on the ground. 

Bay Avenue history

For years, residents and city officials have been aware of public safety concerns for the Bay Avenue corridor. 

The intersection of Bay Avenue and Hill Street, near where Towne was struck, has nine lanes of traffic controlled only by a four-way stop. From the north, some cars are coming off Highway 1, about 500 feet from the crosswalk, while others are coming from the south, heading north through the intersection to get onto the freeway.

Other cars, along with pedestrians and cyclists, are heading into the nearby shopping center to visit businesses like CVS, Peet’s Coffee and Nob Hill Foods grocery store.

When the intersection is congested, local residents say it’s difficult for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to see around cars and to know whose turn it is to go through the intersection. Sitting on the outdoor patio at Peet’s Coffee for more than an hour one morning, a Lookout reporter heard cars honking and the shouts of frustrated pedestrians.

Since 2017, at least three pedestrians have been injured after being struck by vehicles in the Bay-Hill intersection and two others have been killed nearby, including Towne. 

Capitola Police Captain Sarah Ryan said she drives through that intersection often and understands the concerns residents have and the issues of the entire corridor. 

“It’s an ongoing discussion of what is the right solution because there is no perfect fix,” she said. “You’ve got ingress and egress for the freeway, you’ve got the Bay-Hill intersection, then you’ve got this Capitola [Avenue]-Bay intersection.”

Speaking during a public safety town hall Nov. 29, City Manager Jamie Goldstein said he agreed with speakers who said they feel driver behavior has worsened in recent years. 

“I think that there’s been a lot of national media attention around that – driver behavior has changed. I’ve personally noticed it since COVID,” he said. “I don’t know if it was the fact that the roads were clear for six months, but I don’t think we’re immune from it.” 

Last week, a court denied allowing house arrest to Aurora Lopez, 58, of Soquel, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter in Towne’s hit-and-run death. Assistant District Attorney Alexander Byers pointed to a lengthy list of prior traffic violations, including a conviction for speeding, a crash for “which she was at fault” earlier this year, a red light/stop sign violation in 2017, a crosswalk violation, and tailgating in 2007 and 2008. Byers also cited her actions after the accident, including renting another vehicle after her SUV was seized by police in which she was seen “driving recklessly in the community.” 

After the court hearing, Nancy Jones, a friend of Towne’s who also lives at Bay Avenue Senior Apartments, held her high-visibility traffic vest in her hand. She wears the bright yellow vest while walking so cars are more likely to see her. She told Lookout the City of Capitola has to make significant changes to make Bay Avenue safer.  

Jones said the cars need to slow down and respect pedestrians – many of them older adults who need more time to cross the street. “We need traffic lights,” she said. “I walk during the day with the safety vest – they don’t stop. They speed. It’s like a race. It’s really bad.” 

Intersection debate dates back nearly 20 years

Discussions over whether to install a traffic signal at Bay Avenue and Hill Street go back to at least 2004, when the city was weighing plans for renovations and new buildings at the Nob Hill shopping center. An environmental impact report for that project recommended adding a traffic signal there. 

During a planning commission meeting about the project in November 2004, former Central Fire District Fire Chief Bruce Clark told commissioners that the intersection badly needed a traffic signal, according to records of the meeting: “He stated that there are numerous accidents that occur at this intersection and that the installation of a signal will assist in decreased accidents and increase pedestrian safety.” 

Meanwhile, some Capitola residents told the commission they worried that traffic lights would only encourage motorists to drive faster in order to beat the light. The commission decided unanimously not to go forward with the traffic light, with commissioners agreeing that “safety is greater with stop sign-controlled intersections” because cars tend to speed up when traffic lights are green. 

Commissioners also pointed to Capitola’s general plan, saying “policies related to maintaining neighborhood and community character support continuing to use the stop signs at the Bay/Hill intersection.” 

Goldstein said the part of town that lies east of Soquel Creek – including Bay Avenue and Capitola Village – is known for its slower vibes, while the other side of town has the mall, larger streets and many traffic lights. The only traffic lights on that east side are at the Bay Avenue/Porter Street on- and off-ramps for Highway 1, which are owned and operated by state agency Caltrans. 

“If you think a little bit about the way people think about the Capitola, right, like that’s the hustle-and-bustle [side, west of Soquel Creek], this is the small town,” he said. 

After Towne’s death, some residents told the Nov. 29 town hall meeting that they wanted the city to install flashing lights at the intersection – like some they had seen at other crosswalks. 

Public Works Director Jessica Kahn told the meeting that flashing lights are not allowed at four-way stops under state regulations because that “gives pedestrians, or other users, a false sense of security that someone is going to stop because you pressed a flashing light.”

Ryan said community leaders need to begin exploring better safety options for the Bay Avenue corridor. “It’s time for us to do something that’s different from what we have going right now,” she said.  “And it needs to be supported by study so that the public can accept it also.”

Next steps

In June, the Capitola City Council approved $50,000 toward making short-term improvements at the Bay Avenue-Hill Street intersection, which enters the Nob Hill shopping center. Options could include widening the sidewalks and reducing the number of vehicle lanes, which can slow down drivers and shorten the crosswalk for pedestrians, according to Kahn.

On Thursday, the city council will get an update on those plans and will vote on conducting a traffic study of the Bay Avenue corridor. The council is scheduled to approve final plans in early 2024, with work expected to begin as early as the spring or summer.

City staff are separately looking into long-term solutions for the Bay Avenue corridor – which also includes possibly adding a roundabout at the intersection of Bay and Capitola avenues.

Ryan said one of the most important things that needs to happen is to slow down traffic in the area. She added that increasing the lighting at night and adding more enforcement will also help.

As for other solutions, Ryan says it’s worth revisiting the idea of a traffic light. She’s not aware of any evidence that traffic lights increase vehicle speeds, as the Capitola planning commission believed when it voted against a traffic light in 2004. But she says she wants to see the community study those issues and gather more data before deciding on a long-term plan. 

Whatever they decide, Ryan believes things need to change on Bay Avenue. “I would say that the way that we have it set up right now with crosswalks, and hoping and wanting people to stop like they’re supposed to … isn’t going to be enough,” she said. 

Travers is struggling with the loss of his friend. Before Towne’s husband died, he had told Travers, “Take care of my wife.” Now, he can’t stop thinking about his friend’s words. 

“In my mind, I’ve tried to think of what I could have done different[ly] but the facts are, we think we’re safe,” he said. “She was almost through that crosswalk.”

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