CT Transit Bus Hits, Kills Pedestrian

My condolences to the loved ones of the deceased.
How many more of our loved ones must die being hit by vehicles on our streets before something is done to protect pedestrians and bicycle riders?

Heather, please wait until the investigation determines what happened before concluding that something needs to be done that would protect this pedestrian from this bus. In other words, you have no evidence to determine what happened and why.

@Username - I will tell you this. If you are driving 25MPH, and paying attention with your eyes on the road, it's very hard to kill someone when behind the wheel.

That block were the fatality happened is a very congested area, and the driver should have been paying super-close attention, and maybe driving below 20MPH.

In this case, outside of camera footage, we might never know what really happened. But reckless and distracted driving is definitely a huge factor in the obscene number of pedestrian fatalities occurring in New Haven this year.

"Walking on Chapel between Orange and Church" sounds to me like another person who just decided to cross the street mid block without looking both ways. Sad but all too common an occurrence in this city.

Username06443 and robn- if you are driving the speed limit and paying attention like you are supposed to there is no reason why you as a driver should hit a person unless someone stepped directly into your path in too short a distance for you to stop in time or for you to react. A professional bus driver in the city should be even more likely to anticipate that the crowded downtown area filled with pedestrians is an area where you should be on high alert for people crossing the street or getting out of the drivers side of the car into traffic. So unless the person walked directly into the path of the vehicle within a couple of car lengths, the driver was either driving too fast or not paying attention.

HC

I don't know how much time you spend downtown, but your last scenario is a regular thing. People not facing the street will literally spin around and jump out into the street on a regular basis. By regular I mean one can see this happen every 10 minutes or so.

City buses can't just stop on a dime... certainly takes longer than it would to stop a car. That is a very busy block of downtown, and if someone stepped in the street too suddenly, too close to the moving bus, there's only so much a driver can do to stop in time, even if they're going 25 mph and paying good attention.