Driver Kills Pedestrian

Regardless of the circumstances, it is very hard to kill someone if driving at 25 MPH with one's eyes on the road.

Reckless driving? Impaired driving? Distracted driving?

My guess is it will be found to be the dead pedestrian's fault....

"My guess is it will be found to be the dead pedestrian's fault…."

Yes, almost certainly. The perfunctory police investigation will determine that the driver couldn't be proven to be driving more than 24.7 miles per hour, or the victim was two feet outside the marked crosswalk or hadn't finish crossing before the walk signal changed or some other such bullshit. After all, the driver "remained on scene and is cooperating with the investigation" which, combined with the fact that only their version of the story survives is all that's needed to ensure a complete exoneration.

Of course, if downtown streets like Elm weren't designed to be high-speed racetracks . . .

Before I escaped, I used to regularly have to slam on my breaks from people crossing orange street staring at their phones. I understand the rule is yield to pedestrians IN THE WALKWAY. That's right... the signs say "IN THE WALKWAY". Alas, the self-entitled of East Rock loved to simply walk out into the street and give glaring looks because someone had to slam on the breaks. And this looks like the pedestrian wasn't paying attention. Now this poor girl has to go through life knowing some self-centered pedestrian walking against a walk-sign is dead through no fault of her own. This town is so full of victims. I really can't believe it's not a Trump-Town.

"Driving with the flow of traffic" is cop code for "speeding, but only about as much as everyone else was speeding."

Funny how individual responsibility seems to end behind the wheel.

Well sometimes on route 80, people will appear from in front of an SUV or Big truck and step right into your moving lane. If you are not looking for this and driving in. a very defensive manner, they can easily be hit. That's why there are intersections with pedestrian walk signs that give pedestrians time to cross streets in a safe manner. So the driver may have done nothing wrong at all and has to live with this the rest of their life

@ Peter — or the driver was driving recklessly, distractedly or under the influence, and the pedestrian has to live with this the rest of his life.

But whoops, Milton is dead.

Which brings us back to the point that if you are driving 25 MPH, with your eyes on the road, it is very hard to "accidentally" kill someone, regardless of the circumstances.

" . . . people will appear from in front of an SUV or Big truck and step right into your moving lane."

Wow; where do I develop this superpower of just 'appearing' out of nowhere? I definitely wouldn't use it to just pop-up on streets, 'forcing' drivers who are alert, attentive, and driving within the speed limit to 'swerve' or 'slam on their breaks [sic]". There are much better uses to which it could be put.

This part of Elm Street has I think 4-lanes for moving automobile traffic in a single direction. There's a decent chance that Mr. Williams would still be alive if there were fewer car lanes. This is in a downtown, after all, where motorists should be better taught to be aware that pedestrians are likely to be around and where the streets should be designed accordingly. Instead, Elm Street prompts too many drivers to unconsciously feel like they're out on a highway. Route 80, while in a whole other suburban kind of environment, is another cluster also desperately in need of modifications.

For those commenters who have trouble visualising my point. You obviously never had that happen to you when you are doing everything right while driving and someone else does something completely wrong on the road like stepping out from behind a parked car right into your lane of traffic or from a stopped lane of traffic while your lane is still moving, someone who you don't see until the last second because the object they stepped out in front of into your lane is bigger than they are. If it never happened to you, you are lucky. Maybe this is more helpful to illustrate my point

@Cove'd

> Which is exactly why Elm Street should be converted into being two-way. There's too many one-way streets in the Downtown area for there not to be accidents occuring more often than not between vehicles and pedestrians. Two-way streets is something that slow vehicles down and you must also consider the fact that Downtown is also growing at a rather fast pace.

@ Peter — I absolutely have had pedestrians do stupid things, which is why I limit my speed and pay extra close attention in heavily populated areas.

The onus is always on the driver not to kill someone with their car. In a 25MPH zone, there really isn't much excuse.

Elm St between York St and State St is like a mini highway, except when Yale is moving in or out at the beginning or end of the academic year. Changing Elm St to be a two way street with bike lanes on both sides from York to State would help to slow traffic, create safer bike routes. Yale could close to through traffic on High St between Chapel and Elm during move in/out days with an assigned parking slot for 20 minutes to allow students to move their stuff more easily to and from their dorms. All intersections should have crosswalks and crossing lights that accommodate elderly/ disabled/small children crossing times (not "Reference Man" crossing times.) Streets with large volumes of fast traffic in and out of the city in the downtown area or village type neighborhood areas should have speed humps or raised crosswalks and "yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk" signage at driver's eye level. Boulevards like Ella Grasso and Route 80 and DrMartin Luther King Blvd, Frontage Rd, Legion Ave, etc need more pedestrian crosswalks, crossing lights, bike lanes, pedestrian/bike/wheelchair ramp overpasses to facilitate pedestrians getting across those wider and faster traffic lanes. All major street routes in and out of downtown should have bike lanes and bike left turn boxes at the intersections. Traffic lights need to be coordinated and timed to encourage that vehicles move at the posted speed limit can catch all the stoplights going towards or out of downtown (like Whalley, Elm, Goffe, Dixwell and Whitney, Grand, Chapel, etc.) Cross streets to those main arteries should have coordinated stoplights to compliment the main streets. The city should have more buses and shuttles from the West side and East side for students and employees. Park and ride shuttle lots on the outskirts of the city would cut down on traffic. With the increased residential buildings units/business/medical buildings being built there will be more pedestrian/bike/motor vehicle accidents in the city.

+1 to AverageTaxpayer. Just read what he wrote and imagine me writing it yet again.

Those who are simply blaming the driver in this incident might want to google cumulative act effect or, as it's more popularly known, Swiss-cheese theory.

Heather C is on the right track with an analysis of why these incidents occur with depressing frequency in New Haven.

It may suit some people to just blame the driver of a motor vehicle, and when I have to drive through New Haven, which is not anything I ever look forward to, I see plenty of really bad driving. The likelihood of the driver's behaviour here being a big hole in that piece of cheese is probably quite high, but if there is ever going to be a serious effort to reduce deaths and injuries you need to look much further than the driver of the vehicle.

Heather C., you are on point: "...The city should have more buses and shuttles from the West side and East side for students and employees. Park and ride shuttle lots on the outskirts of the city would cut down on traffic..."

We'd have a better city for the people that live here, less air pollution, and fewer crashes if we transitioned to a place where fewer people drove automobiles into the center, but instead took transit in (bus and train), biked in, and/or walked more (or some combination thereof). Remove automobile lanes in order to add more bike lanes, add more frequent bus service (in dedicated bus-only-lanes), remove parking garages and replace with more tax-producing buildings, etc. New Haven would thrive. Folks from out of town would adjust - travel behaviors can change. Really, are the parking garages going to get fully used again anytime soon and do we actually want that? For roads on the periphery that are 4+ lanes wide - those too need their own safety improvements, not to mention road diets at several locations.

I know we're in a fiscal crisis (as we always are), but we also have far fewer cars on the road this year and probably well into the foreseeable future. Now would be a good time to retire the 1-way "highway" system. The public has been asking for this for a decade.

From the AAA website:
"The average risk of death for a pedestrian reaches 10% at an impact speed of 23 mph, 25% at 32 mph, 50% at 42 mph, 75% at 50 mph, and 90% at 58 mph. Risks vary significantly by age."