Pedestrian Struck Dead On Sherman Pkwy.

My condolences to the loved ones of the deceased. May they be informed the identity of their loved one as soon as possible.
We have to do more to protect pedestrians and bike riders and bus riders and to calm vehicles and punish bad driver behavior.

@Heather C: The investigation began a mere 9 hours ago and the autopsy is pending. Way too early to be calling for sanctions against vehicle operators. Middle of the road. 3:00 am. Quite possibly pedestrian significantly contributed but your foregone conclusion doesn’t take that into account. And possibly the man was assaulted and ended up there before getting hit.
Point is that I will be happy to accept the results of the investigation rather than speculating with few known facts.

@Username06443 Hit and run fatality. What do you hope to learn from the autopsy?

Is this a two way road - I realize that's a dumb question, but is it possible that the driver who struck the pedestrian was blinded by a car coming at them running these super bright LED headlights that seem to have become mandatory today for all newer vehicles ??

I know every night I am driving home from work I pray to G-d that I do not run someone over, because I can't see the road or anything for that matter whenever there is a car coming at me with their intentionally blinding automatic highbeams on.

Has anyone sought to look into if this insane mandate of all newer vehicles have to run highbeams automatically, which in turn blind any and all motorists in the line of sight - if that has any possible ramifications such as an increase in auto accidents and pedestrians getting run over ??

Who thinks up these great ideas ??

I so miss the 1980s, living in Brooklyn, with my 1970 small block hopped up Duster, with my old school yellow fog lights - which did not blind anyone.

I know if I am ever forced to sit on a jury where a motorist is in a position where they unintentionally ran someone over - whether they left the scene or not - if they state they were blinded by on coming cars running highbeams, then that person is completely innocent in my eyes.

Okay, maybe the victim was killed beforehand by a gunshot, but I doubt it. Maybe the pedestrian contributed to his demise, but it behooves those of us who drive to drive carefully. Crazy people staggering about the streets is just a part of life in New Haven; we who drive dangerous weapons should watch out for those who pose little risk to others. Driving at New Haven's speed limit of 25mph significantly increases chance of survival for any pedestrian struck. At 25 mph, a pedestrian has a 90% chance of survival, but that chance drops to 50% at 40 mph.

https://aaafoundation.org/impact-speed-pedestrians-risk-severe-injury-death/

At this point we do not know what happened to this particular individual so my comments are not directed about him. I agree many people drive like crazy and pretty much nobody drives 25 unless it’s rush hour. However, I rarely see comments placing virtually any responsibility on pedestrians or bicyclists. I drive Whalley Ave. every day and people quite frequently just come out from between two cars without looking in order to cross. The Yalies are even worse- they cross without even looking up from their phones. Further, I have begun to purposefully take note of bicyclists at red lights. I would say 6-7 out of 10 do not stop for them. Sometimes, they slow down and even stand up a little to see better, but they do not stop. Do a survey yourself.

@johnnyc, Please take a look at the Idaho Stop – this action you are seeing from bicyclists is in fact safer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop
(Cyclists who blow through red lights without looking at all, or who blow through pedestrian signals and don't yield to pedestrians are in the wrong. They exist, but are in the minority.)
I think people might get more upset at drivers because they drive 2 ton metal death machines, and asking them to drive slower at night or in the city to prevent innocent pedestrians from dying seems like a reasonable request. Just my guess.
But sure, with the massive number of vehicular fatalities, maybe our instinct should be to look for fault in the cyclists and pedestrians who pose little to no risk to those around them.

“ know if I am ever forced to sit on a jury where a motorist is in a position where they unintentionally ran someone over - whether they left the scene or not - if they state they were blinded by on coming cars running highbeams, then that person is completely innocent in my eyes.”

This is some hard-core driver apologia and BGW should seriously be ashamed to have thought it, let alone typed it out and posted it publicly.

Oh and yes, it is a dumb question. If a driver is blinded by oncoming headlights, it’s that driver’s obligation to stop until the danger has passed, same as they would presumably do for any other obstacle in the path ahead. There is no ambiguity about this.

“ but it behooves those of us who drive to drive carefully. Crazy people staggering about the streets is just a part of life in New Haven; we who drive dangerous weapons should watch out for those who pose little risk to others. ”

+1.