Volunteers Track Traffic at Lechner Crosswalk

By Matt Weafer
The Broadcast

To some Brescia students, crossing Frederica St. is a life-threatening trek. As one of many attempts to secure safe crossing, Make Frederica Safe Committee volunteers sat on the curb of Frederica and 7th Streets October 18 and 19, monitoring the travails of a Frederica-crossing pedestrian, while Channel 25 filmed their work and traffic gushing past.

Dr. Conrad Toepfer who monitored traffic and tallied the results said, “Many of us knew that the Lechner crosswalk was hazardous but I do not think we realized just how bad it is.”

From early morning to 1:00 p.m. on both the 18th and 19th, 797 automobiles passed through the crosswalk while a students were crossing. 331 students total crossed in two days.

“During my shift,” Eva Atkinson said, “no impaired students crossed, but a man walking his bicycle across Frederica St. was nearly hit by a driver who did not seem to notice that he was crossing.”

“It seemed as if the pedestrians did not exist if the drivers did not make eye contact,” Toepfer said.

According to Atkinson, there is a law stating that traffic should stop for pedestrians in a marked crosswalk and in all circumstances, vehicles are supposed to stop for a visually impaired pedestrian with a cane or seeing eye dog. “At the very minimum,” she said, “it would seem that city officials would be aware of the law.”

However, she said, “no city vehicles stopped, or slowed while pedestrians were in the intersection.” She witnessed an Owensboro Police Department car, and Owensboro Municipal Utilities truck and a city bus drive through the crosswalk, indifferent of the pedestrian.

Toepfer said,“I saw several cases of students having to retreat back to the curb or dart forward to avoid cars that showed no sign of slowing down. I also had a student tell me after we stopped monitoring on Wednesday, that she literally had to jump out of the way of a car that never slowed.”

Atkinson contacted Gina Boaz, regional transportation planner for Green River Area Development District, who said that 7th & Frederica St. is not considered an "intersection" because the “7th St. no longer goes through across Frederica. She said that in 2003 and 2004, there was one reported accident each year on Frederica at 7th and there is no history of any pedestrian incidents at that crosswalk.”

Toepfer said, “Based on the near total disregard for pedestrians, I am actually surprised that there have not been frequent collisions.”

According to Boaz, there is a traffic counter at 10th and Frederica Sts. and at 5th and Frederica and an average of 17,000 pass the Lechner crosswalk each day.

Boaz recommended that impaired students go to the lighted intersection at 9th and Frederica or 5th and Frederica to cross. According to Atkinson, Boaz also said that drivers in Owensboro ignore the pedestrian right of way law and suggested that the OPD or the state could either improve signage or enforcement at the Lechner crosswalk.

In another attempt to draw attention to the crosswalk and petition city and state officials, Dr. Dan Kuntz sat outside the Brescia Dining Hall with letters for students to sign and send to government officials. Students signed over 150 and letters.