Delaware still top-ranked in pedestrian fatalities
Josephine Peterson
Editor's Note: The Pedestrian Safety Council last met in April, said Mitch Topal of the Office of Highway Safety. The council's website had not been updated and members had not returned phone calls about the council, before the story was published.
Michelle Williams drove home past an intersection filled with police and firefighters at Kirkwood Highway and Duncan Road on May 11, exasperated she couldn't use the turn lane.
“I remember thinking, 'Like, are you for real?' I needed to use that turn lane that they were in to get home,” Williams said.
A car with a broken windshield and a dismantled front bumper sat amidst flashing police lights and uniformed officers.
It wasn’t until the next morning she found out her sister, Aquisha Williams, 30, had been fatally struck by the car.
Aquisha became one of the latest pedestrian deaths in Delaware, which in 2017 was the fifth deadliest state for pedestrians, after New Mexico, Florida, South Carolina and Arizona. Last year, 216 Delaware pedestrians were struck on roadways. Of those, 34 were killed, according to state data.
Delaware in 2015 was the deadliest among all states for pedestrians. That year, after a record high of 36 deaths, the state created the Pedestrian Council to find solutions. Officials have said last they met April 24, but October 2017 was last meeting minutes on the website.
Some road improvements have been made, although pedestrians seem reluctant to use them if it means walking farther, but more is needed, experts of all kinds say.
DELDOT Chief Traffic Engineer Mark Luszcz said no one really knows why Delaware is a top-ranked state in pedestrian fatalities.
"Ten to twenty years ago, there was the mentality that we don't want pedestrians crossing this big, high-speed roadway," he said. "That philosophy has changed to: There are pedestrians crossing this big, high-speed roadway, so we need to give them facilities to do so."
Aquisha Williams had just told her family and friends that week she was pregnant. Family and friends said she was an outgoing, warm and funny mother, who loved her children.
“I still can't believe it. I still think she is going to walk through the door and say it was a joke,” Michelle Williams said. "We were always tight, but we were distant for a bit. I was hurt because we were just starting to get closer."
Williams' mother, Etienne Williams, said in their last conversation, 20 minutes before the crash, Aquisha told her she was heading over to spend Mother’s Day weekend with her. Aquisha was crossing the road to take the bus to visit her mother, her family said.
“She said she was coming up to celebrate. After that I find out my daughter was gone,” Etienne Williams said. "I can't sleep. I just keep thinking she is going to knock on that door."
Jana Simpler, the head of the Office of Highway Safety and former chair of the council acknowledged it can be dangerous for pedestrians like Aquisha Williams to run across roadways.
"Motorists aren't looking for pedestrians outside of crosswalks. It's not only hazardous for the pedestrian, but startling for the driver," she said.
Simpler said the state has prioritized education as a tactic to combat the lethal problem. The department has allocated money for police officers to educate and enforce.
Officers hand out flyers and reflective gear to pedestrians, said Gerald Bryda, a spokesman for the Newark Police Department, home of the University of Delaware. That town has heavy foot traffic, largely downtown on Main Street and surrounding the campus.
At the beginning of each semester, Bryda said officers try to educate new students on public safety, focusing on pedestrian safety. The city has added a pedestrian crossing signal on East Delaware Avenue near The Green to help protect UD students.
"The signal has been very effective. The signal stops traffic like a real signal and allows people to cross,” Bryda said.
Michelle Williams doesn't believe education is enough.
“No one is going to sit down and listen to seminars about pedestrians getting hit," she said. "Most people aren’t worried about them walking in the street, because they think it’s (the pedestrian's) fault.”
A Newark Police patrol car fatally hit a pedestrian at Del. 4 and South Chapel Road in March. Bryda said they will not comment on an open investigation.
Most pedestrians struck by cars are 35 to 64 years old, and most are killed at night. Simpler said it is harder then for drivers to see pedestrians when they appear where they aren't expected. Data shows that Delaware is one of five states where more than 80 percent of the fatalities occur in the dark.
Simpler said the state doesn't have data linking distracted drivers and pedestrian deaths, but assumes the use of cell phones is involved.
Another reason for the high number of deaths, said a chief planner at DelDOT, is the way roads were developed in Delaware.
Rob McCleary, head of DelDOT's Division of Transportation Solutions, said highway planners as far back as the 1920s did not consider pedestrian safety.
"As much as I think we need to acknowledge that our land use decisions and development patterns are at least a contributing factor to the pedestrian facility rate if not the leading cause, in all reality the damage is done," he wrote in an email to other DelDOT employees and pedestrian advocates. "We cannot roll back development patterns."
McCleary wrote that there are four questions road planners, as well as the broader society, now must consider, "rather than just continuing to lament where we are now."
The questions are:
- What infrastructure can we add to these corridors to encourage pedestrians to make safe crossings?
- Are we amenable to channelizing pedestrians to designated crossings where the infrastructure exists to make a safe crossing?
- Are we amenable to adding traffic lights at every intersection to slow traffic and create more opportunities to cross?
- Will we find enough funding in existing budgets to make such sweeping changes?
The News Journal in February asked McCleary what progress had been made to address the questions. He said DelDOT recently hired a consultant who will design various pedestrian improvement projects along New Castle County's dangerous U.S. 13/U.S. 40 corridor. There will be short and long-term projects, he said, to be built over the next 2, 5 and 10 years.
"They will be embarking on development projects including such things as sidewalk improvements and channelizing pedestrians to designated crossing locations," McCleary said in an email. "They will also develop strategic placement of new signals and crosswalks to provide more locations for people to cross the highway."
State budget documents show that about $7 million in state and federal dollars will be committed for the corridor's pedestrian improvements in future years.
DelDOT has been making highways safer over the past 10 years, Chief Traffic Engineer Luszcz said.
On U.S. 13, one of the most lethal highways, the state has added pedestrian signals, curb ramps and roadway lighting, with a current project to add sidewalk connectivity and additional traffic signal locations that give pedestrians a spot to cross.
Millions of dollars have been spent on pedestrian overpasses, but they don’t prove to be effective, Luszcz said. U.S. 13, even with two overpasses, had two fatalities with a total of six struck in 2017.
“People don’t want to walk a quarter of a mile to use it, and then a quarter of a mile to get back to where they want to go,” Luszcz said.
Michelle Williams said she and her sister crossed Kirkwood Highway 1,000 times, with and without the crosswalks. She said it is just easier and faster to jaywalk, and even when she uses crosswalks, she has nearly been hit.
“Drivers just don’t pay attention,” Michelle Williams said. “I don’t think it is safe to cross the road without a crosswalk, because cars are going faster than you think.
"I yield if I see a squirrel. How can people not yield if they see a person?”
Tips to stay safe as a pedestrian
- Wear reflective gear
- Use crosswalks and other pedestrian-friendly tools
- Walk against traffic
- Do not walk impaired
- Do not use distractions, such as phones
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Karl Baker contributed to this story.
Contact Josephine Peterson at (302) 324-2856 or jhpeterson@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @jopeterson93.