A person driving a 2020 Honda Ridgeline pickup truck hit two men just after 6 am on November 17, 2021, killing one of them. The driver drove through the intersection as the light turned red, hitting the men crossing the street. The crash occurred at the intersection of Kennywood Boulevard/Route 837 and Hoffman Boulevard.
This is an intersection people need to be able to cross on foot. Pre-pandemic the bus stops at this intersection collectively had 175 total boardings and alightings per day1This is documented by the Port Authority system map.. Improvements to bus service along Route 837 are proposed in the NEXTransit Plan 2See Page 59 which will likely further increase ridership at this intersection. In order to make a round trip journey on a bus, a traveller needs to be able to cross the street in order to take the bus in both directions. There are also multiple restaurants people should be able to walk to located on the block adjacent to this intersection. This intersection is also on the ¾ mile route connecting a nearby residential neighborhood to the only grocery store in walking distance.
As a result of these pedestrian needs, it is imperative that this intersection have the infrastructure to be safe for people travelling on foot. Unfortunately the intersection as built fails to do this.
The unsafe conditions at this intersection are a failure on the part of PennDOT, which is responsible for this state owned intersection3 The intersection and Kennywood Boulevard/Route 837 are state owned and therefore the responsibility of PennDOT. Hoffman Boulevard is a municipal road. Road ownership in Allegheny County is documented by this map.. State departments of transportation, including PennDOT, commonly prioritize motor vehicle speed over safety. As a result, even though only a small portion of urban roadways are state owned, state owned roads account for a majority of urban traffic fatalities. Kennywood Boulevard has a 40 mph speed limit and lacks side walks north of the intersection.
40 mph is an unsafe speed for pedestrians. A literature review by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) includes the Figure 1 chart based on data from the UK Department of Transport Traffic Advisory. This ProPublica article shows a similar relationship between speed and fatality risk based on research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
The fatality risk to pedestrians from 40 mph traffic is unacceptably high. Therefore, a 40 mph speed limit is inappropriate at points of pedestrian crossing. The speed limit should be reduced approaching this intersection and rumble strips should be used to alert drivers to slow down.
Insufficient street lighting also likely contributed to this crash. The crash occurred an hour before sunrise. In 2016, 75% of pedestrian crash deaths occured at night.
The intersection of this four lane road is lit by only a single street light that was located at the opposite side of the intersection from the crash location. A second street light was positioned 50 ft further down the road from the intersection. A literature review of the impact of crosswalk lighting on pedestrian safety concludes that street lighting significantly improves pedestrian safety. For example, one study found that installing street lights at intersections reduced nighttime crashes by 45%. The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) guidance on street lighting states that lighting should be placed 10-15 ft before the crosswalk on both sides of the street at each approach. The lighting at the Kennywood/Hoffman intersection is deficient.
In addition to issues with the road design, systemic issues with the design of vehicles in the United States likely contributed to this tragedy. Pickup trucks and SUVs are much more dangerous to pedestrians than standard cars. These vehicles have a taller hood height and therefore are more likely to cause head and upper body injuries. According to the NHTSA, they are 2.5 to 3.4 times more likely to kill pedestrians. Additionally they have larger blind spots increasing collision risk to pedestrians4See pages 54-63 of this pedestrian crash report.. In Europe, crash tests are required to evaluate impacts to pedestrians and pedestrian related design standards must be met. The United States does not have comparable safety requirements.
The crash that happened outside of Kennywood, like most of the thousands of fatal car crashes that occur in the United States every year, didn’t need to be deadly. It was only deadly because of the choice we’ve made as a society to not prioritize safety. Let’s fix these problems and build a safer place to live.
