#collisons

This is a sad story of a 14-year-old high school student who died when she was hit by a car yesterday morning (Monday, March 25) while crossing the street to catch a school bus that was approaching the stop. The article above includes a photo of the house where the student lived and where she crossed the street, and here are a couple of photos to put the scene in context.

First, an aerial shot, taken from Google Maps:

I'm not certain, but I think the student's house is off to the right. Next, here's a street-view shot, also courtesy Google:

This is a two-lane road that is the antithesis of pedestrian friendly. It's high speed — the speed limit is 55 miles per hour. There's no controlled intersection in the vicinity. No marked crosswalks or other warnings for cars. No sidewalks. No lights (the accident occurred before sunrise). No shoulder worth mentioning. It's perfectly straight, so there's no natural curve of the road to nudge drivers to slow down.

Cars are invited to speed down the road as fast as they want to, and if a kid is crossing the street so she won't be late for the bus, there's no time to react. The police at the scene said that speed did not appear to be a factor in the collision, but what that means is that unlawful speed was not an issue. It's the lawful speed that's the concern and that contributed to the girl's death.

I do feel bad for the driver — she was doing what was expected of her, which was to drive at an unsafe speed on a road where people aren't expected to venture absent the protection of a two-ton steel enclosure.