Stop, Look, and Listen

This week, in the space of just over 12 hours, 3 female pedestrians were killed: 2 locally and one at the other end of the valley. Prior to these latest fatalities, within the past year an elderly man was killed crossing a highway between a mall and a restaurant, another elderly man was killed jaywalking across a busy main street in a local dowtown business district, two teens who were arguing were killed on another nearby highway, and another teen was killed crossing a major thoroughfare between two housing areas on Halloween night.

When an accident occurs, the investigators seek the cause(s); the public assesses the blame.

A teen girl was killed Halloween night when she—and a group of friends—made a bad decision to cross a poorly-lit, highly-traveled street in the middle of the block while wearing dark costumes. The driver swerved and avoided most of the group of trick-or-treaters, but not the last one. The hue and cry arose about the posted 50 mph speed limit, the nearby construction that “forced” the teens to cross the street in the middle of the block, the lack of street lights. The blame was thrown at the driver and the roadway, but not at the bad decision-making of the teens who chose not to walk an extra hundred feet to a corner traffic light before trying to cross the street to continue their festivities.

An elderly woman also crossed in the middle of the block and was killed by a passing motorist. The woman was carrying groceries, so she probably wanted the shortest route to her apartment door, but she too was on a highly-traveled street with a posted speed limit of 50 mph at night and crossing in the middle of the block. Concerned citizens are calling for lowering the speed limit, adding more street lights, making the area safer for pedestrians.

A 20-something darted across a busy street, taking her chances against the traffic, and she also lost the gamble that she could make it safely to the other side of the street.

It is tragic whenever anyone is killed, but we have forgotten that many victims of pedestrian traffic accidents cause their own injury/death. We cannot, as so many have asserted, change all the speed limits to keep jaywalkers safer while darting across the street. We cannot, as more demand, add an endless string of street lights to illuminate areas that are inherently not safe for pedestrians. We cannot assume that adding gutters and sidewalks in rural areas will protect pedestrians from speeding drivers, inattentive drivers, bad drivers, drivers under the influence.

Or protect drivers from unsafe pedestrians who make bad decisions.

We cannot legislate that pedestrians understand that the human body cannot withstand a collision with a 2000-pound automobile traveling 50-60 miles per hour. We have to put some of the responsibility onto the shoulders of the pedestrians who should have known better, who should have realized that they could not be seen in the darkness as they crossed in the middle of the street, who should have realized that they could not cross the street faster than the oncoming traffic would approach them.

It used to be that all children were taught to stop, look, listen—and then look again—before crossing any street. That is no longer the case as far too many people assume that wherever they choose to cross the street, the vehicles will stop for them. Drivers just aren’t going to do that if they are talking on the phone, dashboard dining, disciplining children, running late, inexperienced, under the influence, or speeding. Drivers assume that the middle of the block is for their use, not for pedestrians who want to take a short-cut, rather than find a corner, a traffic light, or a marked sidewalk.

In the most recent fatality, however, another young teen was walking on the shoulder of the major route in and out of the community that would also take her to school. Because she lived within a mile of her school, she was a walker; the major route she walked has no gutters, no sidewalks, just an uneven shoulder and then desert dirt. A driver hit her, threw her body and her backpack about 50 feet off the roadway, and then sped off. No one saw the young girl for about an hour after the impact, and she was pronounced dead at the local hospital about the same time classes were starting at her school.

She was the one of the most recent pedestrian fatalities who was doing everything right that morning—and the driver who hit her did everything wrong. We cannot, as some have suggested, blame the local school district for not providing bus service, the lack of gutters and sidewalks, or the speed limit, because a person is responsible for the accident that killed this young girl. A driver caused this accident, and a driver has to be held accountable for it.

When an accident is a crime, such as the collision that killed a young girl on her way to school, law enforcement needs to use all the resources within their power to bring the driver to justice; however, when it’s a matter of bad decision-making that results in a pedestrian death, the public has to accept that there are no laws that can protect a pedestrian who makes the bad decision.