ENCINITAS -- The City of Encinitas is tearing down lodgepole fencing along a winding two-mile stretch of road after cars were impaled on the pointed wooden fence rails.

City Risk Management Director Jace Schwarm said the city has come to see the fence along Lone Jack Road as a potential lawsuit as the number of car crashes into the fence climbs.

However, local resident and equestrienne Terry McDougall said the fence should stay, and the city should install stop signs, speed bumps or other measures to slow traffic.

McDougall said most of the crashes are the result of drunken driving and speeding, and drivers have only themselves to blame.

"(The city) should ask the citizens' opinions because it's only a handful of people killing themselves," McDougall said. "You don't run into that fence unless you're drunk, speeding or breaking the law."

McDougall said she is mounting an effort to preserve the fence, which divides the road from a riding trail. She said she is circulating a letter among local residents and will hold a town meeting next week to draw attention to the issue.

The city began installing the intermittent fence, consisting of two 8-foot rails suspended between 2-foot vertical posts, said Encinitas traffic engineer Rob Blough. The fence, built on city property along the two-lane asphalt road, creates an 8-foot-wide trail for horse, bicycle and foot traffic.

In many places the narrow road has no shoulder -- also known as a "recovery zone" for errant drivers who veer off the road. With the fence just a few feet off the asphalt, drivers have little room for error, Blough said. Removal of the fence will restore the recovery zone along some stretches of road, he said.

Schwarm said the city began looking at the issue after noting that several accidents involved the fence.

McDougall said the fence serves as a traffic barrier and safety zone for the horse riders, bicyclists and moms pushing strollers. Not so, said Blough.

The fence is not designed to stop or redirect a car like a steel guard rail and offers little protection to pedestrians, Blough said. In fact, the wooden posts shatter on impact spraying splinters into the path.

Schwarm said the fence actually creates a false sense of security in the minds of pedestrians.

"It's better than nothing and it looks good," McDougall retorted. "It adds a lot of ambience to the area."

By law, public entities like the city must correct a known problem or face liability for negligence, Schwarm said. To date, she said, the city has not been threatened with a lawsuit over the crashes.

The city is studying traffic patterns on Lone Jack Road and will meet next week to discuss findings and consider recommendations such as replacing the fence with some other barrier and options for slowing traffic, Schwarm said. She said the city is taking the fence out while it considers what to do.

Since the city began installing fence about 18 months ago,10 accidents have been reported along the road -- seven in 2006 and three through May 2007, Blough said. In contrast, authorities recorded just two accidents on Lone Jack in 2005, and five each in 2004 and 2003. None of the 25 accidents reported along Lone Jack Road since 2002 have resulted in death, Blough said.

In some recent cases, the fence rails have pierced the passenger compartments of cars, narrowly missing occupants.

Blough said traffic studies show that 85 percent of drivers are traveling at more than 40 mph to 45 mph. The posted speed is 40 mph. Like McDougall, Schwarm said the accidents are mostly the result of speeding, drunken driving and inattentive drivers.

Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or online at pireland@nctimes.com.