Reacting to three serious student accidents and an adult cyclist fatality over the past four years, city and school officials are brainstorming on ways to improve safety around Napa High School.

A surging student population and increased vehicle traffic have made crossing Lincoln Avenue on foot, bicycle and skateboard more dangerous, members of the city’s Traffic Advisory Committee said Thursday.

In the most recent incident, a 15-year-old student was hit in a crosswalk in September while crossing Lincoln at Marin Street on his skateboard.

The youngster, who was on his way to school, survived what easily could have been a fatal collision with a van, officials said.

School and city officials are talking about further reducing the number of crosswalks on Lincoln and better marking those that remain.

Diana Greenwood, a Napa High parent who witnessed the September collision, urged the Traffic Advisory Committee to take quick action.

“We have to look at those crosswalks or we’ll lose more kids. We’re lucky that kid didn’t die,” Greenwood said.

As a temporary fix, Greenwood recommended planting a crosswalk sign in the middle of Lincoln at Marin. That would be a “really fast solution” while other measures are looked at, she said.

Any solution involves enforcing speed and right-of-way laws while improving intersections and educating students about safety, Public Works Director Mike O’Bryon said.

“As a community, Napa is not very courteous when it comes to driving,” Don Evans, the Napa Valley Unified School District’s director of operations, said Friday.

Motorists are in a rush at the start and end of the school day, Evans said. They often fail to notice a student crossing Lincoln until it’s too late, he said.

Students put themselves at risk by not crossing at crosswalks and cycling or skating across Lincoln when they should be walking, Evans said.

“I wish the skateboarders would get off their skateboards and walk across the street,” Evans said.

“By their very nature, teenagers tend to disregard their pedestrian responsibilities,” Napa High’s dean of students, Al Bahn, said Friday.

If the school district had unlimited resources, Bahn would recommend that crossing guards be installed at key Lincoln and Jefferson Street intersections near campus.

Evans isn’t sure that crossing guards would help. Students tend to cross at many locations, resisting efforts to be channeled to just a few, he said.

Several years ago, the city eliminated two crosswalks on Lincoln, hoping this would increase safety. The number of remaining crosswalks could be further reduced, said Jacques LaRochelle, the city’s designated new public works director.

“I drive Lincoln every morning. I hold my breath every morning,” said John Glaser, superintendent of the Napa school district.

Glaser urged a community effort to educate motorists and pedestrians to behave more defensively. When motorists see a vehicle in an adjoining lane stopped, they also should prepare to stop in case a pedestrian is crossing, he said.

Napa High talked about pedestrian safety for an entire week after the September incident, Glaser said. Students are doing a better job crossing at crosswalks and looking around stopped vehicles before proceeding, he said.

O’Bryon said the Public Works Department would further analyze the situation and decide if crosswalk eliminations or median crosswalk signs made sense.

The city is looking at the possibility of obtaining “safer route to school” grants to make more costly pedestrian improvements to Lincoln, LaRochelle reported.

With 2,500 students, Napa High has more students this year than in any one year in the past decade, Evans noted. With First Street blocked due to construction of a new Napa River bridge, more motorists are using Lincoln to get across town, he said.

The opening in two years of a high school in American Canyon will reduce Napa High’s enrollment, while completion of the First Street bridge should lower Lincoln’s traffic volumes, he said.

A meeting will be held soon between Glaser, Police Chief Rich Melton and LaRochelle to talk about options.