One week after a truck wrecked the front of a historic midtown building, some residents and business owners are saying they'd like a traffic signal for what they say is a dangerous intersection.

Several people sitting at Harry's Cafe, a popular sidewalk cafe next door to the damaged building, narrowly escaped serious injury when an Icee truck and an SUV collided at 16th and U Streets and ran up onto the sidewalk. Locals say last Tuesday's accident was one of many that have threatened people visiting businesses or on foot on the busy one-way street.

"It's dangerous. I really want to see the city put a stoplight right there," said the cafe's owner, Harry Luong, 53.

However, police accident reports indicate the intersection hasn't had more than an average number of accidents, said Sacramento Police Sergeant Norm Leong.

Police report numbers don't indicate the total number, because reports aren't filed for many.

The truck rammed the corner of a vacant brick building at 2030 16th St., where one of Sacramento's earliest Safeway stores originally stood. The building’s front collapsed and only three quarters remained intact.

The SUV swerved right, crushing a sidewalk table and chairs outside the cafe at 2026 16th St. before stopping just short of the restaurant's front wall.

Harry's Cafe was able to reopen the following day after a crew from the Housing & Dangerous Building Division of the city’s Code Enforcement Department removed damaged sections and stabilized the remaining walls of the unreinforced masonry building.

Luong's business has been slow since the accident, despite a loyal following. But he and his wife, Lynn Luong, who owns Lynn's Beauty Salon next door, are worried about people's safety. Their son and his friends had to run from an outside table when the SUV rushed at them. They escaped with cuts and bruises. Another patron was injured by flying glass.

Standing outside his cafe, Harry Luong pointed skyward and said "someone up there" must have been watching to prevent worse injury.

"My son is very lucky he didn't get killed," Luong said. "That's the main thing I'm concerned [with] right now."

Just then, North Sacramento resident Jim Young stopped his car in front of Luong and yelled out, "I'm really glad your son's okay."

The surrounding neighborhood is home to many elderly people and families with children. High school students and senior citizens often cross three-lane 16th Street at U Street. They may be visiting one of the intersection's three businesses -- the cafe, a 24-hour taco place called La Garnacha, or Quickly, an Asian fusion cafe/drink shop.

The posted speed limit is 35 mph, but the street can be dangerous when drivers on 16th rev up to catch a green light at T Street, people said.

Quickly's co-owner Doug Holdren, also a newscast director at KCRA, said the intersection is "absolutely" dangerous.

"People can't drive. They're talking on the phone, they're texting, not paying attention. And they're trying to go through an intersection that possibly needs a light," he said.

Even drivers living in the neighborhood have a hard time crossing 16th when cars are parked illegally right to the corners.

"If cars park on 16th Street, I can't see anything," said retiree Betty Fong, adding there’ve been many accidents in her 35 years at U and 19th Streets. "We need a signal here."

Holdren agreed.

"You get 20 feet [of curb] that says 'No parking here to the corner.' When people park there, the people who [drive] up on U Street can't see up 16th. So when they pull out -- boom! There you go," he said. "There's a lot of old Chinese ladies who walk around down here. I feel sorry for 'em because nobody wants to stop for 'em."

A previous accident sent a car flying onto the front porch of the intersection's only house, at 2031 16th St. The car destroyed the front steps and part of the porch and could have killed someone if they'd been on the porch at the time, said 92-year-old Lucille Forrester, who's lived on that corner for 39 years.

"I was taking my nap on the davenport and my kitty was with me. All of a sudden, we heard a noise and my kitty jumped up," she said.

Sacramento Police accident records for the last five years indicate no fatal accidents or pedestrian injuries at the intersection in that time, said Leong.

From January 1, 2004, to May 1, 2009, the intersection has seen four injury accidents and four non-injury accidents, said Leong. However, police reports for non-injury accidents are limited. Accidents must meet certain criteria for reports to be filed, he added.

"Based on the number of accidents, I wouldn't say it's any higher than any other intersection for a five-year period," said Leong.

Only drivers were injured -- including a mountain bike rider who rode into a parked car. Parked cars often suffered in accidents. Last Tuesday, the SUV hit a car parked in front of the café. Some believe that that helped prevent more injury.

Business owners and residents believe they're not likely to get a signal because one exists at T Street. At least one person suggested making 16th two-way. Holdren questioned whether a remedy would come through for this intersection when a lot of one-way-street intersections are dangerous.

"Yeah, I think it's bad. Is there anything the city can do? Who knows. You can't put that kind of money into every blind corner we have," he said.

The damaged building -- and the street -- have played major roles in the neighborhood's life for decades. Three years after the Safeway grocery store chain began operation in 1926, a Safeway opened at the spot, said Pat Johnson, a senior Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center archivist who tracked down the original building permit card.

Traffic has grown considerably on 16th Street. People now say they're worried another accident could take someone's life.

"Right now, the main thing is we need to do something to stop the accidents," said Luong.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.