“If we felt the pain of loss each time an ecosystem was destroyed, a species wiped out, or a child killed by war or starvation, we wouldn’t be able to continue living the way we do. It would tear us apart inside. The losses continue because they aren’t registered, they aren’t marked, they aren’t seen as important. By choosing to honor the pain of loss rather than discounting it, we break the spell that numbs us to the dismantling of our world.”
– Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone in Active Hope
On the morning of my birthday, I woke up early to put together — the best I could — the narrative about how an 81-year old woman was needlessly killed because the driver of a minivan did not take proper care to avoid hitting her and her 83-year old husband as they crossed a Vernon road to move from one safe multi-use path segment to the other. Hours after her passing, I could find mention of it above the fold on only one local news site. It’s as infuriating as it is predictable. Had the driver sped off or the victims been a very particular kind of victim, this would have been a top story.
If a driver is sober and remains on the scene, and if the vehicle is not stolen, then the whole occasion is treated as an oopsie-daisy by the media.
This should feel offensive to you.
It does not seem to matter that the outcome is the same: a person who should be out enjoying another morning walk today has been deprived of that.
In what way are we all responsible for depriving Anna of her morning walk today?
Because we are.
That’s whether we drive faster than we should, participate in and maintain a culture that normalizes reckless, deadly behavior.
That’s whether we opt for adding a warning sign when what a road needs is a raised crosswalk. It’s budgeting for a raised crosswalk in a location where speed humps on either side of a crosswalk are what’s required.
That’s looking at the map on your phone while behind the wheel, even at a stop sign or traffic light; people overestimate how seamlessly they can move between one task and another.
That’s waving a pedestrian to cross, while letting your vehicle roll forward when the person is still in the street.
That’s making hostile comments about how you’ll hit someone if they walk in front of you, as if wearing a car gives you some divine right to take up space. That’s treating pedestrians and cyclists like annoying obstacles instead of as fellow human beings who have as much of a right to safety and respect as anyone else. That’s not shoveling snow from sidewalks.
That’s lobbying against bike lanes.
That’s still calling fatal collisions “accidents” and diminishing the nature of these deaths. In Streetfight, Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow explain that “The word ‘accidents’ blunts the impact of these deaths and obscures the causes and our responsibility to end them. A closer look at each incident reveals specific human factors that contributed directly.”
There are many ways that we are responsible for killing, and many ways that we can change course.
What would it look like if we designed with love of self and love of other people?
I’m not talking about “love” that comes with strings attached, that has to be earned. The kind that requires perfect behavior and adherence to a dress code is not really love. That’s more akin to paying taxes — something most do only because they are legally obligated. I’m referring to acting with love that nobody has to earn to receive.
If we loved our neighbors and loved the strangers among us, how would we design to love them? How would we write, pass, and enforce policy to love them? If we loved, we would understand the word “enforce” to mean something different than what even the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes as an obsolete definition: “to effect or gain by force.”
How are we showing up for each other?
We can’t afford to do that only when the victims are “perfect victims” — the kind who are even individually acknowledged by the governor. We have to show up for everyone, including and especially for those with “no certain address,” for those who the media never bother to identify.
We can choose to behave differently by implementing life-respecting policies, installing meaningful infrastructure, switching how we speak about cyclists and pedestrians, and yes, changing how we drive. People have put almost all their focus on that final aspect, though, to the detriment of our friends, family, and neighbors.
For decades, we have heard some version of “to do your part to prevent global warming/climate change, change some lightbulbs and recycle your soda cans.”
People have done that, and you can see where we are today.
It’s not that there is no value in individual action. Yes, we should be doing those things, but we need to be acting so much bigger than that, at the same time. We need cultural shifts, policy change, and to be funneling the bulk of our efforts into what is known to work.
Instead of asking drivers to slow down, stop drinking, and start paying attention (or worse, demanding pedestrians and cyclists jump through a billion ridiculous hoops, most of which do not factually keep us any safer) ask yourself and others to love more. Love harder. Love your community, for real.
Before we get into the specifics of the preventable deaths from June 2024, we need to go back to last year. A large batch of crash reports were recently added to the CT Crash Data Repository from 2023 fatal collisions, and two of these were related to deaths that the media never reported.
Initially, both crashes did have news attention for a split second, in that they occurred, but as far as I can find, none of the news outlets followed up. This is not surprising given that the local media sensationalizes crashes in which the drivers leave (or attempt to), and typically gloss over those that involve negligent-but-sober motorists who stay at the crash site.
On the morning of October 23, 2023, when it was still dark, 40-year old Mansfield resident Jesse Michael Jones was riding his bicycle to work. He was traveling straight on Route 44 near the UConn campus, where the speed limit is 35 MPH, there are no bike lanes, and street lighting is insufficient. The driver of a Chevy Colorado Lt, an overly large pickup truck chose to turn left directly in front of the cyclist. There is no left green arrow light at the intersection.
Jesse died ten days later, and the news made no announcement of this.
The following month — 28 November 2023 — just after noon in Waterford’s Crystal Mall parking lot, the driver of an oversize Ford-F25 pickup truck collided with a 72-year old male pedestrian. This driver was making a left turn. The media had nothing to say about why the motorist, in a parking lot, did not avoid hitting an elderly man.
I was able to locate Jesse’s obituary; unfortunately, I do not know the name of the man killed in the mall parking lot.
This brings the 2023 total from 58 to at least 60 preventable pedestrian and cyclist fatalities; the records are still not all in the CT Crash Data Repository, more than a half year later.
When I say that drivers have killed at least 39 pedestrians/cyclists, so far, in 2024, I am referring to this phenomenon of local news media — who have funding for staff to make calls and emails — failing to do follow up on stories about the victims of serious crashes.
Here’s what I know about the fatal, and always preventable, pedestrian fatalities from June 2024, in which we had eleven preventable pedestrian fatalities; for comparison, there were three pedestrian fatalities in June 2023.
HARTFORD — JUNE 3, 2024
Around 11 PM, Camila Elizabeth Ramirez-Carcamo — 19 months old — wandered out of a laundromat on New Britain Avenue.
A driver did not avoid striking her.
The news cycle wants us to follow them into revenge mode, where we gaze at the mugshot of the reckless driver, but we should all sit with the pain of this loss.
Had we done that, collectively, this horrible and preventable tragedy would have been the last pedestrian fatality in June, or ever.
But, we did not allow ourselves to feel that pain, nor did we allow ourselves to think logically about how to prevent additional deaths.
Camila was killed on New Britain Avenue near the intersection of Ellsworth Street, 0.8 miles from where a college student was killed in 2022, six months before Camila was born.
Although that other section of New Britain Avenue received traffic calming treatments following the fatal collision, which also injured two other college students, the improvements were limited to the area near Trinity College. This came after demand from residents, but likely more importantly, from Trinity College administration.
There have been no improvements on the portion of New Britain Avenue between Broad Street and Webster Street, where road users are more likely to be year-round city residents than seasonal college students.
The area around the laundromat is no stranger to crashes, including one causing an adult pedestrian to be injured in 2019. Also that year, a driver killed a person using a 50cc moped scooter one block west of the laundromat.
Decision-makers have allowed a 30 MPH speed limit in a densely populated neighborhood.They’ve allowed on-street parking. They’ve allowed a street that does not function well for humans in a densely-populated neighborhood.
EAST HARTFORD — June 6, 2024 (two pedestrians killed)
At 1:20 AM, the driver of a Nissan Rogue killed two pedestrians who were using Route 5/15 in East Hartford. The victims of this preventable collision were identified as Jaheem E. Miles, 21 of New Haven, and Moncrieffe Marion (not pictured), 18 of Hartford.
The two young men were possibly the 6th and 7th pedestrians to be killed on Connecticut’s highways this year.
The language used in media coverage has been inconsistent about the nature of the crash, including how many vehicles and people were involved, and where victims were from. My guess — based on what I have seen from hundreds of crash reports — is that the vehicle the victims had been in previously was either crashed or experiencing mechanical issues, something of that nature, and then people inside the vehicle exited it, becoming pedestrians. Most pedestrians hit on highways are not just out there exercising.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find out anything about Moncrieffe, but from Jaheem’s obituary, his loved ones describe him this way: “Jaheem attended Achievement First High School with aspirations to pursue a career in nursing. He dedicated his time working at Autumn Lake Nursing Home. In his leisure, Jaheem found joy in playing video games. Known for his humor, he cherished his family dearly.”
HARTFORD — June 12, 2024
On June 12 at lunch time I was waiting for a bus on Farmington Avenue when fire trucks and police vehicles went screaming by at higher speeds than usual. Emergency vehicles in this area are common, but this was a frenzied response. Others waiting for the bus noticed too. I rode the bus, saw nothing, completed my errand, and went to take a different bus route home. I knew it would be detoured because of construction. Strangely, we did not go down the posted detour route, but down Park Street instead. That afternoon, I would learn why: all those emergency vehicles were responding to a crash at a construction site on West Boulevard.
I used to live on the corner where the crash happened. Driver behavior here on the best of days is what you would expect on a road that essentially serves as an extension of the Sisson Avenue ramp to/from I-84. It’s wider than it needs to be, and though there are lots of pedestrians and cyclists in this area, the design does not reflect this. The bike lanes are paint-only, rather than barrier-protected. On a recent walk, I found a crosswalk button to be physically broken, so people at a corner with an apartment building can’t even summon a pedestrian walk light. It’s not great.
I questioned how someone from this area could drive so recklessly here, at this time, when there has been so much ongoing construction in the neighborhood. For at least the last year, different parts of Farmington Avenue have been under construction. More recently, causing bus detours, there has been construction also on Capitol Avenue. Then, the construction crews have popped up other places like Woodland Street, Sisson Avenue, and West Boulevard.
On this clear and dry Wednesday, despite there being construction signs and a flagger, a person drove through a site, killing a construction worker and hitting at least one construction vehicle.
The construction truck driver who was killed was Jose Diaz-Nieves, 54 of East Hartford. In his obituary, his loved ones say: “He worked as a truck driver for Paramount Construction until his passing. Jose was a loving and devoted husband, father, son and friend that will be deeply missed.”
How does that happen?
If we believe the driver’s lawyer, the motorist had a seizure — which sounds like something we would feel sympathetic about, except for this detail: he had a history of seizures which had been more frequent recently.
If a person knows they have a medical condition that interferes with their consciousness, are they being any more responsible than someone who drives while drunk or high on cocaine and fentanyl? If this person has a known issue that does not work well with operating heavy machinery, why would they do so? That’s not meant in a rhetorical sense. Why weren’t they able to be a passenger? Why weren’t they using public transportation? What about our system did not meet their needs such that driving with a known medical condition seemed like a reasonable option?
Two years ago — 3 June 2022 — a driver who knew she had a medical condition that caused “black outs, altered mental status and brain fog” chose to get behind the wheel of a car. She experienced this condition while operating the vehicle, crashing into a median and taking down a crosswalk signal, then driving onto a large island — what would count as the town green in some places — killing a pedestrian who was standing on the island. She then proceeded the wrong way down South Main Street before coming to a stop. The Town of West Hartford literally responded with “thoughts and prayers,” and then posted anti-loitering signs — which were promptly removed — on the medians, where there are crosswalks and where the pedestrian lights weren’t long enough for most to cross on one light cycle anyway.
Unless your thoughts and prayers are accompanied by policy and change, take a seat. Be useful. Act as if you love your neighbors and all the others who are just passing through.
How the media reports crashes shapes how the public perceives them. They set these up, almost every time, as a story in which there is an individual villain. It works well — for them — when the driver has engaged in behaviors that those loving “law and order” recognize as deviant: stealing a vehicle, ingesting street drugs, and having a criminal background that may or may not include driving offenses. When the driver has a known medical condition, there’s a sense of “well, they should not have done this, but what can you do? Tell someone not to drive?”
Yes, tell them not to drive. Take away the keys.
But what happens when someone is sober and conscious, but a terrible driver? Nothing, if they remain on the scene and the vehicle’s registration checks out.
VERNON — June 12, 2024 (two pedestrians hit; one killed)
The construction worker’s death was not the only preventable pedestrian fatality this day.
In the morning, Anna and Joseph Krocheski of Tolland, both in their 80s, were out for a walk on the peaceful and popular Vernon Rails to Trails, which spans about nine miles between its Rockville Spur and the Hop River Linear Park Extension. There are plaques along the walk explaining the historical significance of the trail, and at some spots there are nice views of Tankerhoosen Lake.
Like most multi-use paths in Connecticut, very little thought was put into what happens when people need to cross roads.
Drivers on Warren Avenue are alerted to the likely presence of people using the road. There are several signs, including hi-vis ones, telling motorists of this possibility. There’s a marked crosswalk. Additionally, this path has been well-established, with preliminary work beginning in the 1980s, and then with it officially becoming part of the “rails to trails” network in the 1990s. It seems unlikely that anyone living in this area would be unaware of the trail decades into its existence. It’s like someone living in Greater Hartford not knowing about the West Hartford Reservoir. The rail trail is kind of a big deal in Vernon.
Around 9:30 on a clear, dry morning, the driver of a minivan — who lives in a neighboring town — did not avoid hitting two elderly pedestrians as they crossed from one section of the multi-use path to the other. Both walkers were taken to the hospital via helicopter ambulance. Anna died. The last time the media was interested in this story, they shared that her husband, Joseph, was in serious but stable condition.
This family had already been through enough, losing a son in recent months.
Right now, some people are falling all over themselves over RRFBs — those signs that flash when pedestrians press a button. While they seem more useful on low-lighting or after dark, these signs in my experience do little to change daytime driver behavior — regardless of if I am alone or with others when trying to cross. I expect that some will push for the addition of RRFBs in this location. This is not nearly enough. There’s already a 25 MPH posted speed limit sign that drivers ignore. There’s already hi-vis signs that drivers ignore. Why would a sign that flashes yellow lights — which only suggests caution rather than demand motorists stop — make much improvement?
At these trail road crossings, much more is needed than razzle-dazzle nothingness.
What would make a difference? Physical changes to the roadway that forces behavior change, since drivers have shown they won’t simply do it because the signs and paint have asked nicely. A speed hump on either side of the crosswalk would make a significant difference — it does not rely on drivers being kind and respectful to those outside of vehicles.
In 2020, an impaired driver killed a parent as he was walking his dog along a road 0.2 miles away on Phoenix Street. Later, the Town of Vernon installed RRFBs at a trail crossing nearby on Phoenix Street, but did nothing to address the bigger issue where he was actually hit: no sidewalks. Once a person is on the path, they’re very safe. When they need to walk to or from the trail, they are in places often without sidewalks. Vernon budgeted up to $60,000 for those RRFBs. While sidewalks are a more complicated and expensive project, the modest and relatively inexpensive speed hump — $2000 each — slows vehicles down, which is as important as giving people their own space to move around in.
Most drivers won’t balk at new signs because they don’t actually make motorists drive more slowly. They will gripe about anything that requires behavior change, like devices that make drivers decide between slowing or breaking parts off their cars.
EAST HAVEN — June 14, 2024
The third pedestrian death of this one week, sixth of the month, and 34th of the year in Connecticut happened around 10 PM on June 14, 2024 on Main Street in East Haven by the KFC.
This victim was Gina LaVacca, who according to her obituary, “worked in Field Technology as a Technical Assistant for the Knights of Columbus. Gina loved artwork, music and was an avid NY Knicks and NY Giants fan. She loved her family, animals and hugs. Gina was loved by everyone, everyone loved her and she loved her family more than anything.”
Initially, police told the media that the suspect’s vehicle was a dark-colored sedan. This description was only modified hours later when it was announced that the alleged driver was taken into custody: this time, the vehicle was described as a white hatchback. The suspect and vehicle were located 0.8 miles away from where the collision happened. Surveillance video is what corrected the original vehicle description.
This is a reminder to not put full trust in initial reports, especially when based on witnesses rather than video. Last month, some police actually participated in a training to help them better understand pedestrian crashes since they are rarely witness to them in real time. This should have been an eye opener for folks about how little those completing crash reports and investigations had been aware of before. This matters because the initial reports that make it into the news often include assumptions about where a pedestrian was in the road when struck. While these may be cleared up later by video, it’s rare for the news to do follow up stories on pedestrian crashes. What this means is we hear so much about a person being “near” or “not using” a crosswalk when later it’s determined that they absolutely were. What the public hears, then, is that another person jumped in front of a vehicle and got what they deserved.
Last month, a police officer was killed while standing next to his vehicle on the highway. Had this been a civilian, the chances are about 50/50 that we would ever hear why the victim was on the interstate at all. Two of the six pedestrians killed in May have yet to be identified by the news; there are many who died long before that who were never publicly identified. Because a police officer was a victim in May, they immediately released every single detail. The result? A sympathetic public. It didn’t hurt that the driver was someone that most would not extend any empathy toward.
All of this matters, because when we understand everyone to have inherent value and when we stop demanding perfect victims, we can actually begin resolving the problems that cause these fatal crashes.
Gina was crossing Main Street in East Haven where there are places people would be expected to want to walk to and from — restaurants on one side of the road, a shopping plaza on the other.
Why would anyone create places people want to go, and then make it dangerous for them to get there?
Posting the mugshots of and demonizing the drivers has not prevented more people from being killed.
What does? Safer road design.
We know this, thousands of times over.
If it were simply a matter of bad drivers or the so-called careless pedestrian, we would see these fatal collisions evenly spread out across the state on all kinds of roadways.
But, we don’t.
They are heavily concentrated on certain types of roads.
People get confused by data when they take all pedestrian crashes into consideration. This is an issue of not agreeing on what the problem is, or rather, what the problem to be addressed most immediately is.
Looking at where the serious and fatal injuries on roadways are most likely to occur and fixing those areas is doing nothing more than acting with love.
They wouldn’t even have to do massive studies. There’s data free and open to the public.
Something I’ve observed while researching preventable cyclist and pedestrian deaths since 2020 is that a high number of the drivers recently lost a close family member — often within a year. We know that many — but not nearly all — fatal crashes involve the driver being under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Those who had long histories of struggling with addiction or misuse, even after periods of sobriety, wind up back in the system not long after one of these family losses. We hear about this when the news pushes out their “look at this monster” pieces when impaired drivers — most of whom leave the murder scene — are arrested and begin the journey through the punishment phase.
What if we acted like we loved one another — our neighbors, coworkers, the people we say are our friends? What if we loved each other enough that people were not constantly trying to fill their emptiness with alcohol and other substances?
In a caring society, it would seem that extra efforts would be made at multiple levels to intervene when people enter into high stress eras, which are exceptionally predictable: dissolution of marriage/major relationship, death of a loved one. I don’t have the answer for what this kind of community care would look like, but it would not be enabling or normalizing behaviors that are both harmful to the person and to those who they may pass along the way. It would not be acting like it’s fine to allow a friend or spouse to (try to) drive themself home after night drinking in the bar. That’s true whether the person drinking is a politician or lawyer or actuary or unlicensed neighborhood mechanic. Love would look like helping one another mourn in healthy ways.
Love is not trying to fulfill a revenge fantasy. That’s a hole that can never be filled.
The many drivers — whether sober, so intoxicated it’s a wonder they’re alive, licensed, possessing a long history of criminal driving charges, driving with a known medical condition that impacts their ability to responsibly operate heavy machinery, whatever — who have killed pedestrians and cyclists should have some kind of consequence, but if we are acting with love toward neighbor and stranger, that extends also to those who have murdered with vehicles. Those arrested for killing or seriously injuring pedestrians/cyclists should be immediately stripped of their license. That’s a sensible and natural consequence. Then, after that? I would require they use public transit or active transportation only for a year — no cabs, no getting rides from friends. This is not punishment, but a way to build empathy for other road users. Ideally, this would be the case following any moving violation, regardless of if anyone was injured. Ran a red light? Lose license for a year and take only public transportation so that you have to viscerally understand the danger of a vehicle going through a red light. Some version of this should be built into driver’s education classes. We have to do better at building empathy, and to even get to that point, there needs to be love.
The focus of the media needs to stop being on whether or not a driver remained on the scene. Love for fellow humans needs to be prioritized over the media’s love for ratings. They should be looking on how to prevent the issue. That would be responsible journalism.
We should be doing real work to prevent the problem, but there are those out there who look for criminality in individuals rather than in systems. There are those who believe that only one kind of victim is worthy of attention, who whimper about a flag not being flown (or lowered) for one kind of victim while ignoring the fact that their favored victim’s death absolutely fit a pattern that has been experienced by many others over time, this year, even in the same month in the state; and then, they pay no attention to the others because it does not fit their narrative of exceptionalism. They should be ashamed of themselves. Skipping over the inconvenient details and seeking revenge does not prevent future acts of traffic violence.
Our attention should focus on meaningful changes to road design, and then doing the harder work of lobbying for policy changes that remove excessive numbers of larger vehicles from our roads; that can be achieved in part by stricter licensing requirements. Knowing how to drive a sedan responsibly does not automatically translate to driving an SUV or pickup truck responsibly. They don’t stop as quickly. There are loads of blindspots, and nobody should rely entirely on detection systems. Those detection systems are proven flawed, especially at night when they would be most useful. All vehicles should come with devices that disable the ignition if the would-be driver fails an alcohol and drug detection test.
It’s not enough for thought influencers and decision-makers to offer thoughts and prayers; they need to correct their path.
HARTFORD — June 19, 2024
Keeping count? Three pedestrians were killed in Hartford in June: a toddler, a construction worker, and a 40-year old Chicopee, MA woman.
Around 11:55 PM on June 19, 2024, Lutricia Daniels (no obituary or photo found) exited her parked car and attempted to cross Main Street by the West Indian Social Club, between Tower Avenue and Rosemont Street. The driver of a Honda Accord slammed into her; she was pronounced dead on the scene.
This is what persistent inequity looks like.
One year and two & a half months previously, a driver killed Kendall May in almost the exact same location. The sites are so close that I needed to manipulate the coordinates when mapping these locations so that viewers understand that these are two separate fatalities.
There is a marked 30 MPH speed limit that few follow. There are four lanes. At a time when there are few vehicles on the road, we can safely assume the driver was traveling excessively fast. Only two of the three legs of the nearest intersection have a marked crosswalk; I’m not suggesting that paint would have made a difference, but paint is like the bare minimum effort Hartford could have taken toward making this safer for pedestrians.
It is known that pedestrians use this area throughout day and night, yet the street design does not reflect this reality in a way that says “yes, we respect our neighbors and make every effort to let them travel safely.”
Main Street north of downtown has proven dangerous again and again for both people inside and outside of vehicles. In January 2022 a driver killed a pedestrian on Main near Capen Street; in June 2020, another pedestrian was killed on Main at Seyms Street. There have been at least five fatal crashes (driver or passenger) on Main Street north of downtown since 2015.
NORWALK — June 21, 2024
On dry and clear Friday morning at 9:20 emergency services were dispatched to 81 Riverside Avenue in Norwalk.
The victim, who died in the hospital, was identified at 59-year old Kathleen Quigley-Cutting. According to her obituary, Kathy’s “compassion for helping others will live on. Kathy graduated from Sacred Heart University and received her Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. She then held various positions within the community, dedicated to helping those in need, most recently with special needs students in Newtown and Westport public schools. An avid walker, committed to healthy living, a lover of art, nature, flowers, and all forms music, Kathy especially loved the blues. She had an encyclopedic knowledge of unique information. She found humor in animated characters, puns, and funny photos, and loved sharing her comedic perspective with others. Her storytelling was always captivating because of her ability to describe events with such clarity and purpose. She enjoyed traveling to new locations, parks were her favorite, and trips to Uzbekistan and Australia held some of her fondest memories.”
The posted speed limit on Riverside Avenue, where is 40 MPH. That’s what we know.
It’s unclear if she was walking alongside Riverside Avenue or elsewhere. Initial reports said she was struck while walking in Riverside Cemetery (81 Riverside Avenue), but others, and not all, said she was hit near the cemetery.
A section of the Norwalk River Valley Trail that just opened in March is nearby. It is unknown to me what kind of fencing separates this part of the path from the road, but it is possible that Kathleen was trying to cross from the path into the cemetery. No news reports mentioned the proximity of the multi-use path, and all the wording about where the collision occurred has been ambiguous.
BRISTOL — June 24, 2024 (two pedestrians killed)
Fay “Claire” Clarity, 37, and Nicholas Cricco, 34, both of Bristol became the ninth and tenth pedestrians killed in Connecticut during June, and were involved in the second collision last month in which two pedestrians were killed, and the third collision last month that involved a driver striking two people at once in which there was at least one fatality.
According to Claire’s obituary, “She was raised in Southington and graduated from Rockville High School in Vernon. She was a certified Pharmacy Technician.
She spent most of her time caring for animals of all kinds. She truly had a love for all animals and found solace in the reciprocated love they would often show her. Claire loved to travel. She had a special love for Oregon where one day she had hoped to settle. Claire was a proud supporter of the LGBTQ2+ Community and was an active volunteer in the annual PRIDE Festival in Hartford. Throughout life’s struggles, Claire was still a friend, confidant, and supporter of all people. In the memory of Claire, please live your life with kindness and acceptance of all people regardless of your differences.”
I could not find an obituary for Nick, but from a fundraiser page set up to cover expenses, it’s been said that “He was a cherished son, brother, and friend who brought so much love and light into our lives. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.”
Bristol and the Connecticut DOT have seemed utterly uninterested in improving conditions on the town’s state-maintained roads, and this has been a problem again and again.
Claire and Nick were killed on Route 72 (Pine Street) when a driver did not avoid them or a metal shopping cart one of them was pushing/towing. More about that in a minute, but let’s look at the wider pattern — because this is not about individual action but systemic inaction.
So far this year, drivers have killed four pedestrians in three locations in Bristol. Two of those three sites are state routes. Bristol’s population is only around 61,000.
One of those victims a jogger hit while she tried crossing Route 229, a road with identical design as Route 72/Pine Street. The other was a man using his wheelchair in an area without sufficient street lighting, stop signs at any intersections, or apparent maintenance of curb ramps.
This isn’t merely Bristol having a bad luck year.
In April 2024, a driver sent a pedestrian to the hospital with “life-threatening injuries” after a collision on Route 72/Pine Street, about 0.3 mi away. There has been no follow up report about the pedestrian’s condition.
In 2016, a driver killed a cyclist on Route 72/Pine Street west of Emmett Street where Claire and Nick were killed; another two pedestrians were injured in separate collisions at this location: a gas station. Pedestrians were injured at Route 72/Pine Street and Emmett Street in May 2016, February 2019, and February 2020.
From there west to the intersection with Middle Street, there were several more crashes resulting in injuries for pedestrians. This includes a fatality in October 2022.
There have been at least 150 crashes (with or without injury) at the intersection of Route 72/Pine and Emmett — where Claire and Nick were killed — since 2015.
The data is all here.
This is a known problem spot that Bristol’s decision-makers have not shown the political will to fix.
Sometime in the 4 o’clock hour on the morning on June 24, 2024 the driver of a sedan managed to hit two pedestrians and a metal shopping cart; I will make much of this detail because even if the victims were donned in head-to-to dark clothing, there should have been reflection from the cart. Assuming the driver was using their headlights, focused on the road, and driving at a speed reasonable for conditions, they should have seen the cart if nothing else and had time to stop or avoid contact.
But, that’s not what happened.
Photos and video of the scene show a cart damaged and knocked over, and belongings strewn all over the roadway.
Nothing has been said by the media about why a motorist did not avoid colliding with two humans and a metal cart.
Even at this early hour, drivers should expect pedestrians in the area because of the number of businesses and the fact that this is near a CTfastrak route 102 bus stop, and service for the day would have already begun.
Route 72/Pine Street is five lanes on either side of the intersection. This makes for an excessively wide space at any minute during the 4 o’clock hour. This width enables people to easily drive faster than is safe. The speed limit is either 30 or 35 – police have been inconsistent in recording this information. There are gas stations on two of the intersection’s four corners.
WALLINGFORD — June 28, 2024
The 11th pedestrian fatality of June was also the second occurring in a road work zone last month.
Around 9:15 AM on a clear, dry day a driver hit Andrew DiDomenico, 26, of Meriden on Wallingford’s Wharton Brook Connector — a 45 MPH glorified ramp between Route 5 and I-91. He was reported to be on the shoulder when he was hit, working alongside other DOT employees. He was picking up roadside trash before a DOT lawnmower was to go through the area.
Later, it was revealed that the motorist failed field sobriety tests.
Nothing has been said about why vehicles still have not been all required to have the device that prevents a vehicle from being started when alcohol or drugs are detected on the would-be operator’s breath.
Love for one’s neighbor looks like harm prevention, and so, so many harms would be prevented if only there was the political will to mandate this technology, with no exceptions for pre-existing vehicles. In this, and many of the other preventable pedestrian deaths, the motorist was driving with a suspended license. Why roll the dice?
New London – June 28, 2024 (possible)
I have not included this in the total, but it’s possible that there is one more. A woman was found bleeding in a parking lot in New London. Her cause of death has yet to be determined.
TAKE ACTION!
Take some time to sit with the sadness and horror of all these losses, from a toddler who was just doing what toddlers do, to an elderly woman out for a walk with her husband.
Then, mourn these preventable deaths by taking actions to prevent future losses.
Connecticut residents: Contact your local media and let them know that as a consumer, you expect a higher quality of reporting. Ask that they treat all crash victims with the dignity and respect that all humans deserve, regardless of their age, race, job, criminal history, housing status, etc. Ask that they behave like journalists by asking questions and reporting with nuance. Ask that they do more than merely parrot what the police have told them. You can share these reporting standards with them.
Bristol residents and road users: Tell decision-makers that now is not the time for timid incrementalism! Demand a road diet on state roads in Bristol. This means reducing lanes for motor vehicles, creating a barrier-protected bicycle lane, adding curb extensions, and more.
Contact Bristol’s Mayor: mayorsoffice@bristolct.gov 860.584.6250
Contact Bristol’s Dept. of Public Works: publicworks@bristolct.gov (860) 584-6125
Contact the CT DOT: (860) 594-3000
Hartford residents and road users: Contact safestreets@hartford.gov to request that the rest of New Britain Avenue be made more walkable for all residents: lower the speed limit and remove visual obstructions like redundant on-street parking and narrow the travel lane width. Additionally, ask that they address the other ongoing problem area: Main Street north of downtown. This is obvious. This is a known problem. Ask for a meaningful road diet that centers neighborhood residents and those visiting neighborhood establishments. While you’re at it, ask for traffic calming on West Boulevard from the intersection of South Whitney Street to the I-84 ramps on Sisson Avenue — there are multiple apartment complexes on this block and it’s astonishing that this is not treated like an actual residential street.
Norwalk residents and road users: Ask your decision-makers to spend more time on the places where people using the NRVT might be exiting it to cross roads, and vice versa. People cannot beam themselves up onto the trail. Even if this turns out not to be involved in the recent fatal pedestrian crash, this is a matter that should be addressed.
Vernon residents, rail trail users, and road users: Ask for physical changes to the roadway, like speed humps on either side of the crossing, at a distance from it where this would make an impact. Ask for road narrowing, like with giant planters, well in advance of the crossings.
If you’re going to use your energy to push for change, make them meaningful changes – not flashy security blankets.
Ask for these improvements every time the rail trail crosses a roadway.
David Smith is Vernon’s Town Engineer – contact him 860-870-3663 dsmith@vernon-ct.gov
East Haven residents and road users: Hi-vis awareness signs do not slow drivers down. Ask decision-makers to do a safety audit of Main Street by getting out there and walking it themselves at night and in the rain. Is there adequate street lighting? Does the road discourage people from traveling too fast for conditions? Is it arduous for pedestrians to find safe and effcient crossings? Ask decision-makers to get out there and feel this experience in their bones.
