To be honest, it is hard to know exactly how many pedestrians lost their lives in Connecticut during March because our news media has devoted almost all of its reporting to the pandemic. 

What can be verified is this: despite the new viral worries, Connecticut residents are still dying after being struck by vehicles — none of which were autonomous. 

On March 4th, Brooke Rich, a popular member of the Wesleyan College community, was the victim of a hit-and-run. The 41-year old Middletown resident and cashier at the college, was struck at 9 PM on Washington Street at High Street. This leaves her children without a mother. 

The most recent information available says that a car was seized and two people of interest are being questioned in connection with this untimely death. [Edited to add: an arrest has just been made, though it is surprising to see that the Vulnerable User Law was not applied, even when a witness said Rich had been in the crosswalk during the pedestrian light cycle when the driver hit her]

Pedro “Pete” Esquilin, 59, died on March 13, one month after being struck while waiting inside a bus shelter in Hamden. He was the second of the two men struck by Pinky McBurrows to die. She was arrested and faces a slew of charges. 

According to his obituary, Esquilin was predeceased by his wife. He served in the National Guard, worked for Stop & Shop, and “enjoyed music, watching Star Trek and reading comic books.” 

Amber Neal, age 38, died in East Haven on March 8th. It is not yet known if she was struck as a pedestrian, or if she had been thrown from a moving vehicle. This is another horrifying and preventable loss of life in any case. She was found in the middle of Frontage Road at 6:15 am. 

Neal’s obituary describes her as having “worked most of her life in the customer service industry in which her respect, empathy, patience and attentiveness with people were highly valued.” She is survived by her parents and her son.

Two (or three) deaths in March may seem like an improvement over previous months, but it cannot be forgotten that not all pedestrians who are struck die. Many suffer significant, life-changing injuries. 

On the second day of last month, Jose Lopez intentionally struck two marshals in the parking lot of a Manchester courthouse. He fled, but was caught in Chicopee, Massachusetts. One marshal had a minor injury; the other lost consciousness and required surgery, but is expected to make a full recovery. 

On March 4, two people were struck by Douglas Bennett at the entrance to Electric Boat on Pequot Avenue in New London. The male pedestrian was described as being in serious condition; the female, in critical condition, was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital. The driver remained on the scene and apparently had not been charged with anything, though his vehicle somehow “jumped the curb” in a traffic circle. This happened just after noon. 

Most recently, on March 21, Timothy Fisher of Middletown, a popular school teacher, was struck while walking his dog around 5:30 pm on Country Club Road. The driver remained on the scene. Fisher was initially reported as being in unstable, critical condition; he has been upgraded to stable, and has been speaking a few words, but a long recovery is expected.  His dog was also hit, but the pup is back home now. Where he was walking, there were no sidewalks nor crosswalks. 

All of this is to remind folks that we still have another public health emergency that needs solving. 

Ninety people, on average, are killed as a result of motor vehicle crashes every single day in the United States. 90. That number includes drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicycle riders, and others.

Although the data for 2019 is not finalized yet, approximately 18 pedestrians in the United States were killed every day, for a total loss of around 6,590 pedestrian lives last year. 

Traffic fatalities have been a public health emergency for years, but without the response as if they were such an emergency. 

That’s not to say there has been no response. 

Local and national “safety drives” — safety campaigns — began at least as early as 1921. Their usefulness, however, is debatable. A New York Times piece from 1922 titled “More Auto Killings Spur Safety Drive,” reported on proposed legislation that “would place responsibility for avoiding [crashes] wholly upon the shoulders of the driver in cases where a pedestrian was killed or hurt by an automobile,” with a supporter of this explaining that “the drivers are the ones in control of that which inflicts the injury.” At the same time, there was a push to reduce speed limits in New York City. 

One century later, the norm is still what was referred to then as being “antiquated,” with drivers frequently getting away with carelessness. 

Occasionally, today, we have exceptions. The driver responsible for killing  84-year old Valda Dienavs in January of this year appears to be facing charges. Most other drivers who struck and injured or killed pedestrians in Connecticut this year have had no such consequences. It seems that consequences only come to those who leave, or attempt to leave, the scene of the collision.  

In 1936, the newspaper of record pushed out an idea to quell the violence twice within a matter of days. While reporting on the auto industry’s apparent support of a campaign to reduce road carnage, the New York Times did not gloss over the fact that the chair of the safety traffic committee of the Automobile Manufacturers Association opposed “the use of mechanical governors to limit the speed of cars.” The association backed driver’s education and continuing public school safety essay contests, but not a device that would directly cut down on deaths and serious injuries. 

The follow-up article shared that at the time, cars were “killing people at a rate of 100 a day.” Meanwhile, the Automobile Manufacturers Association was quoted as saying that “Attacks on the problem which stress horror create only fear.” Fear that the industry would get hit in the wallet? 

There had been 36,400 automobile-related deaths in 1935, yet those who could do the most simply would not. As the paper put it: “Automobile engineers have already provided their product with four-wheel brakes, non-shatter glass, practically crash-proof bodies and extreme manoeuvrability. Shall they also provide speed governors? Shall they decrease the power of their motors? Automobile men say no to both questions.” 

During the previous year, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Daniel Roper, said that the automotive industry was most responsible for deaths and injuries: “Why is it necessary to manufacture cars with speeds of from 80 to 100 miles an hour? What steps are being taken by dealers to insure the public against the selling of high-speed cars to reckless […] drivers?” 

Speed limiters are still not mandatory in the United States, though in 2019 there had been discussion of requiring them in commercial trucks. Better than nothing, but commercial trucks are involved in only 12% of all motor vehicle fatalities. 

We were not always this terrible. Connecticut had set its speed limits to 12 mph in cities and 15 mph on country roads in 1901. Since then, that work has been undone and we have only witnessed half-hearted attempts to eliminate car fatalities. 

Sure, well-publicized safety campaigns in 1927 went after those driving with “illegal and badly focused automobile headlights” in Westchester, but springing from that same era was the belief that widening streets would make them less dangerous and congested. 

The next decade was no more promising, with a 7-month safety drive in 1933 receiving headlines, despite being nothing more than posters displayed by “major oil companies depicting situations contributing to the heavy annual toll of life and property due to automobile [crashes],” as reported by the New York Times. 

Just as laughable was a 1934 campaign in London. Women were encouraged to tell their “husband or son every morning: ‘Be careful — come home alive.'” 

Not to be outdone, a couple years later, here in the States, the Safe Drivers Committee held luncheons for women who pledged to follow driving rules. 

That was the same year that upstate New York announced a safety drive following 248 motor vehicle fatalities in January and February. This is the year that the auto industry fought speed governors. 

The 1937 New York Times piece entitled “5,600 Pedestrians ‘Walk to Death,'” ushered in an era of blaming the victim. This “article,” featured a photograph of two people enjoying a ride in a car. What kind? A Buick — convertible coupe in the 40 series. I know this because the caption was this descriptive. Sounds like an advertisement, doesn’t it? This piece leaned entirely on quotes from the Keystone Automobile Club of Pennsylvania. There was no fact checking that I could find, and no inclusion of other perspectives. This matters, as in the piece, the car club’s president claimed “Pedestrians themselves, by thoughtless action, have actually walked to death and injury, compiling on their own account a ‘record of horror.'” 

 ‘Jaywalking’ did not originate as a concept at that time, but that slur got more of a boost in the years to come. 

AAA with the National Highway Research Board — which had at least one person filling positions at both — in 1938 did a poster campaign targeting kids to teach “safewalking” habits. 

In Connecticut the following year, the Hartford Courant published multiple pieces blaming pedestrians for their injuries, parroting the motor vehicle commissioner of the day who posited that pedestrians were ignorant of driving rules because most injured were not licensed vehicle operators. Nothing was written about how many drivers in those cases had their licenses. 

Judging by the meeting in 1941 at West Hartford’s Rockledge Country Club, it can be assumed that these approaches did not lead to any noticeable improvement in safety. This meeting dealt specifically with the safety of children, and what to do for those going to school on streets without sidewalks.

Elsewhere in our region, the practice of ‘jaywalking’ continued to be condemned, yet at least one person — George Petit LeBrun of the Legislation League for the Conservation of Human Life — managed to reject this narrative. In his letter to the New York Times‘ editor, he pointed out that 70% of fatalities were due to the “carelessness of drivers.” He called the slur “misplaced,” saying that “instead of instilling safe walking by the pedestrian, it has the effect of causing reckless drivers to disregard the rights of pedestrians.”

To this day, reckless drivers disregard the rights of pedestrians. In March 2020, even with fewer drivers on the road due to the governor’s order, I have personally experienced countless near misses when I have had the right-of-way as a pedestrian.

One instance involved a man speeding through a stale red light on Capitol Avenue. He did not tap the brakes. He did not even see me, though I was wearing a hi-vis rain jacket and carrying a bright red umbrella. The motor vehicle operator was texting on his phone, oblivious to me standing at the crosswalk (with the pedestrian light on). He proceeded to get onto I-84. And by the way, he was wearing a medical face mask.

On another day, a nurse was spotted near Hartford Hospital and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, distracted by both smoking and texting while behind the wheel.  

This year, 2020, should not be the first time anyone wondered why the government did so little to prevent needless death and suffering. Look at  how few meaningful actions have been taken to prevent fatalities caused by those operating motor vehicles.