Ped hit near Office Depot
A pedestrian was struck Sunday morning, November 15, near the Office Depot store in Seminole Square, according to a 9:24am dispatch from the Emergency Communications Center. No further details were released.
–updated 9:28am–original headline: "Ped hit by Office Depot"
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13 comments
@Andy Smith: Excellent point! I have no reason to think Office Depot was involved, and I regret my hazy language.
Perhaps if more people actually knew how to cross a street there might be fewer hit. Jaywalking (like littering) is supposed to be illegal - but local law enforcement doesn't seem to deem it worthy of ticketing. I have often seen people simply start to walk across a street without looking, fifty feet from a crosswalk which they seem to be unwilling to walk to. Certainly drivers should be attentive (not on cell phones), but lets be more clear when it is the pedestrian's fault.
Correct, Frank. Most of the pedestrain signals in this area have been a total waste of taxpayer money. They serve no purpose whatsoever because 98.5% of the population totally ignore them.
Maybe pedestrians should watch where the heck they're going. For every distracted driver, there's an equally distracted pedestrian.
Worse yet, most pedestrians take the 'right of way' a bit too seriously. Sure, cars are SUPPOSED to stop when they see you, but don't be stupid and assume they will. Make sure they see you and make sure they intend to stop before darting out in front of them. I see people walk out into traffic all the time with a real nonchalant attitude...
I would like to know if the pedestrian was talking on a cell phone or listening to an I-Pod? How does someone paying even a modicum amount of attention to their surroundings get hit in a parking lot-assuming the driver wasn't going 60MPH?
I would like to know if the pedestrian was talking on a cell phone or listening to an I-Pod? How does someone paying even a modicum amount of attention to their surroundings get hit in a parking lot-assuming the driver wasn't going 60MPH?
Dave, they are too busy ticketing UVA students for illegally crossing train tracks around the corner area.
I almost ran over an entire family Saturday night. They had a little cop shoppe girl directing traffic at JPA near the entrance to the new hospital and Emergency Room after the ball game. I couldn't tell who she was telling to move at any given time. A family stepped into the crosswalk at the same time it appeared she was telling me to proceed. The family had a red "Don't Walk" signal, and yet she was telling them to do so anyway. All I heard was what sounded like a little smurf voice attempting to yell "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Bottom line, as always, I think some of these rookies need better training in directing traffic and pedestrians.
Hawes, if the pedestrian was struck in the actual shopping center I can certainly understand how it happened. People cross from the parking areas to the stores without ever looking either way. They have been taught by the cop shoppes in this area for decades that the pedestrian always has the right of way under any circumstance.
Ken, get used to it. It's a way of life now. I had a large delivery made to my home Saturday afternoon. The driver and helper both had earbuds and iPods. Every time I attempted to say anything to them, they had to pop out their earbuds and say "Huh?" Very unprofessional.
Nancy, Those numbers sound worse than the pig flu PANDEMIC! Amazing we are so concerned about this pig flu and have it shoved in our faces and yet what we can actually control we do so little and make little mention as a national problem.
ââ?¬Å?Every year, nearly 5,000 Americans die preventable deaths on roads that fail to provide safe conditions for pedestrians. This decade alone, more than 43,000 Americans ââ?¬â?? including 3,906 children under 16 ââ?¬â?? have been killed while walking or crossing a street in our communities
Ok.. some simple math... this decade alone there have been 43k deaths.... so 4300 a year... your opening line says nearly 5k PREVENTABLE deaths occur on unsafe rods...
So what this organization is saying is that EVERY SINGLE DEATH is the fault of poorly designed roads?
Sounds like they need to go back to the drawing board.
The only real way to quantify it would be to look at and grade each accident and assign fault to different categories, road design, driver negligence, pedestrian negligence, weather, poor lighting, traffic congestion. etc.. once you do that THEN you can start trying to fix the problem. Until then it is all speculation with an agenda.. "Cars BAD, Pedestrians GOOD"
One of the most common accidents in major cities is actually caused by people stopping to let someone cross(not in a crosswalk) and people behind them assuming they are turning without a signal or broken down and swing into the next lane to go around and hit the pedestrian. So who is at fault? The road designer for not putting a crosswalk every 50 feet? The SUV driver for allowing illegal behavior? THe driver behind him who was trying to get to work?
We do need designated crosswalks and enforcment of the rules for yielding to pedestrians AND jaywalking.
Dear Hook, your headline here is unfortunate. Using the word "near" instead of "by" would save Office Depot from alleged culpability. Did an Office Depot van hit the pedestrian?
"Every year, nearly 5,000 Americans die preventable deaths on roads that fail to provide safe conditions for pedestrians. This decade alone, more than 43,000 Americans ââ?¬â?? including 3,906 children under 16 ââ?¬â?? have been killed while walking or crossing a street in our communities.
This is from a new report from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Death (and Making Great Neighborhoods),
We have a problem in our community and it isn't getting better.
from the report: "More than half of deaths are on poorly designed arterials"
"Over the last several decades, most of the business of daily life has shifted from Main Streets to state highways that have grown wider and wider over time. These arterial roads, as they are called, have drawn shopping centers, drive-throughs, apartment complexes and office parks. However, the pressure to move as many cars through these areas as quickly as possible has led transportation departments to squeeze in as many lanes as they can, while designing out sidewalks, crosswalks and crossing signals, on-street parking, and even street trees in order to remove impediments to speeding traffic."
http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign/
Pedestrians constantly ignore the Don't Walk signs around here, never mind the ones that cross at places other than intersections. It's a miracle that no one has been hit at that intersection by Student Health.