(update 1 August 2022)
According to the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, the driver did not experience a medical incident prior to the collision, nor was there any mechanical issue with the vehicle that might explain how in the town center a motorist was able to topple a light and then strike and kill a pedestrian who was not in the roadway.
Here is the crash diagram, provided in UConn’s Connecticut Crash Data Repository:
(written on 3 June 2022)
Dear Town of West Hartford,
On a scale of ENTIRELY to TOTALLY, exactly how oblivious are you?
I ask because in your social media message combining a death notice and traffic detour, you had the nerve to offer “thoughts and prayers” to the victim whose blood was still on your proverbial hands.
About once a week I take the bus to West Hartford Center to run a few errands on my lunch break before returning to Hartford. This often puts me in the intersection of Farmington Avenue and Main Street.
Last week I was standing there, waiting forever to get my turn, and wondering whose crummy idea it was to force pedestrians to press a beg button here. I don’t recall ever being the only pedestrian at this intersection. Not even in 2020. I stood there thinking about everything in the Center, and the list is long: many restaurants, multiple coffee shops, multiple milk tea places, a hardware store, drugstore, banks, home furnishing stores, the library, two bookstores, a used sporting goods store, several frozen yogurt and ice cream shops, hair salons, medical offices, jewelry stores, package stores, a grocery store. I think there’s even a WeHa-approved bodega there. Maybe a gym. There’s stuff I’m forgetting — I know that. It’s a packed area, and it’s in walking distance of a high school. It’s a long light. I had plenty of time to think.
The Town of West Hartford loves to promote itself as having this walkable center. bragging in its social media bio about having “safe neighborhoods.”
There’s a lot to unpack there.
When I go to cross, I know I can’t make it from the northwest to southeast corner of the intersection in the time permitted — whether staying in the crosswalks or going diagonally — so I’ve been using a hack where I do a weird diagonal crossing to the larger center island, and then continue through the crosswalk because people driving north on North Main Street will continue to have the red light when it turns green for those traveling east/west.
It’s not ideal.
But when you, Town of West Hartford, design your roads like garbage, you nudge people into making less than ideal choices every single day.
Today, instead of opting for a bus that runs about every ten minutes, getting in, getting out, and going home, I went over to Bishops Corner, something I don’t typically do at lunch on a workday because it means extending my workday to compensate for the longer wait because bus service to Bishops Corner is not spectacular. But, there were a few things I wanted that I thought I’d have better luck finding here than in the Center, and I was still bristling with annoyance over realizing how willing people are to claim West Hartford is walkable when it won’t even automate pedestrian signals where people always want to cross. . . so I took the 72 bus, did my thing, and awkwardly waited around, taking video of a compensation pickup truck stopped at the light with its driver screwing around on his cell phone; there was a thin blue line plate on the front of the truck. Today, I think about how this guy, who has huge blind spots because he chose a vanity truck instead of something reasonable, is coasting along down North Main Street, phone held in front of him. I’m sitting in a bus shelter so close to this busy street, knowing how many drivers are not giving their full and complete attention, knowing at any second one can swerve and run me down as I sit on a bench on the sidewalk in the tiny space allotted to me.
I don’t think I’m so special that this will never happen to me.
It’s because I read the crash data.
I can be wearing hi-vis. I can be doing all the right things.
But I am not the person bearing the most responsibility. That would be the individual behind the wheel.
And they are guided toward series of choices. What are the odds of being pulled over for playing on their phones? Slim. What are the odds of losing their license for playing on their phones? Even slimmer. How wide is the street? How fast is it telling them they can drive? How many obstacles has the Town of West Hartford removed so motorists feel they can drive fast and without paying much attention?
The bus arrives and I get on, sort of glancing at which one it is but not really absorbing the information. The Transit app said the next one was the 62 (Farmington Avenue) and there was a big gap between that and the 72 (Asylum Avenue). There are quite a few people on board for the middle of the day but we’re hauling along because it’s only once on Farmington Avenue that the bus stops every single block.
But then we turn onto Fern Street and I have a brief “oh crap” moment. Normally, I would be stoked by this — it tacks on an extra block of walking but the 72 bus goes so much faster — but I had two extra heavy grocery items this time and would already be walking more than I care for because of the Sigourney Street Bridge construction. When we turn onto Trout Brook, I realize we’re taking a detour. Mind you, the driver tells us nothing when we boarded at a major stop. There are no announcements. If you thought you were taking the bus from Bishops Corner to the Center, you were sadly mistaken.
What else was sad? While waiting at the light, seeing large groups of people crossing the Trout Brook and Farmington Avenue intersection, which is terrifying at all times. I know someone who was hit here a few years ago. I wonder to myself about what is happening. There are always a few people waiting to cross there, but never this many.
Oh. They were coming from another bus in the opposite direction. I assume there’s some water main break or gas line trouble — something like that, and hope that the bus does not get too cramped when we get into Hartford. It’s already fairly crowded for mid-day on a weekday. I just want to get home, put my groceries away, and get back to my job.
On my walk home, I see a message in the group chat: a pedestrian was killed in West Hartford Center.
Everything in me sinks.
I don’t think I’ve ever had that “this sort of thing doesn’t happen here” naiveté in me, so it wasn’t that. It was knowing how close I came to witnessing a person get killed, though later I would learn that this collision actually happened about two hours before I might’ve been in that area (10 AM), had my plans been normal.
It took the Town of West Hartford three hours to offer its empty “thoughts and prayers” on social media at about 1 PM.
All of this makes me want to scream.
Instead, I extend my workday even more by doing some rage gardening, hoping that weeding will help me calm down just a bit. It is impossible to focus when boiling over.
It bothers me every time I hear about another person being killed by a motorist, but some feel like a harder slap in the face than others. Sometimes it’s the victim’s age that makes it sting — the children, the college kids, the elderly. Sometimes it’s the victim’s story: reading their obituary and learning how much they had overcome, only to die like this, and well before their time. Sometimes, it’s knowing firsthand how obviously the roadway has been designed to enable speed, not life.
This one was the latter, and then some. There’s knowing about the Town of West Hartford’s negligence when it comes to designing for safety, with a bonus when you consider that this is its center — it’s the place where, aside from immediately around schools, you expect to be catered to as a pedestrian because that’s how this place has been marketed.
Then there’s the other stuff. I fire off a bunch of texts to try to get confirmation of life from friends I know who live around there and walk around the Center at that time of day.
There’s the sinking feeling that this is a person I will at least recognize — a regular from the 60-66 bus or one of the people who has been screwed over by capitalism and stands on the paltry traffic island with a sign, quietly asking so little from people in a town with so much.
WTNH reports this:
It’s a Friday afternoon and I’m filled with rage and dread — rage that those with power fail to prevent predictable and preventable deaths, and dread over how if the victim was one of the people who asks for donations, this will likely start an awful lot of noise from those who think somehow panhandling — not road design — is the problem, and call on the police to go after those who already have enough problems.
Despite all those “In this house we believe. . . ” lawn signs that cover West Hartford, it is still acceptable to look down on those who are poor. That’s all discussion for another day, except if you want to argue against this, mention to anyone in Greater Hartford that you ride the bus and see what kind of look you get more than half the time.
I’m not sure whether the detail that the victim was poor is relevant or not.
Why should this be his defining characteristic?
As details emerge, it’s reported that he was not even in the street when the driver struck him; he was standing on the sidewalk, just as someone who dropped a couple hundred bucks at a home furnishing store may be standing on the corner.
From WTNH:
When you consider that he would not have been here for one or two light cycles, tops, but for hours of his day, raising his risk of injury, then I guess this detail matters, though I don’t expect the Town of West Hartford to solve the inequities caused by capitalism and failed safety nets.
However, you are not off the hook, West Hartford.
You can fix an intersection.
You could have said “Because we designed our town center to easily enable someone to drive so fast that she killed a person, that is what happened today.” Instead, you took the coward’s approach.
Even the police managed to say the right thing in the context of letting motorists know they need to find another route. Amanda Martin of the West Hartford Police said, “I understand it’s an inconvenience, but someone lost their life today.”
Repeat that over and over to yourselves, Town of West Hartford.
You could have said, “We are going to be accountable for this situation by making changes to this intersection immediately. Expect fewer lanes at the intersection, less asphalt, and more time for pedestrians to cross. I understand it’s an inconvenience, but someone lost their life today.”
Thoughts and prayers will not resurrect the pedestrian, Town of West Hartford.
These words are not a salve.
They do nothing but confirm that you are having trouble keeping up.
See, in the last few years, most of us got wise to how politicians use “thoughts and prayers” following a horrible event that those same politicians could likely have prevented. We hear it said when some angry man (statistically, it’s almost always a male) goes on a shooting spree. Could those politicians have banned guns? Could they have at least banned assault rifles? Instead, they claim that their hands are tied — or straight up refuse to do what takes courage and integrity — and dole out the thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers do fuck all for those who have lost someone.
What would mean something?
Sit down and redesign that intersection tomorrow.
Why is it as wide as it is?
Why are there so many lanes?
Why is it designed so that someone can drive fast enough through it and be able to hit someone at a such a speed that the victim dies?
How can someone drive so fast that they take down a ped head?
How does her car look like this?
That image is from the FOX61 video that shows the vehicle from several angles, and shows that the driver did not stop for one full, long block after striking the man. She proceeded through a second light before stopping the vehicle. The passenger side of the windshield has the tell-tale damage of a pedestrian strike; the driver’s side has disabling damage to the vehicle, which is facing south in a northbound lane.
You don’t cause this level of damage driving at a reasonable speed.
West Hartford, your choices have results.
Make better choices.
Design better.
Design like your children live here.
Design this for families with young children. Design this for people who can’t walk fast. Design for people who can’t jump out of the way of a speeding vehicle aimed at the sidewalk. Design this for those using mobility devices. Design this for those with hearing or vision impairments. Design this for the teenyboppers who are going to definitely be distracted because they are eating their ice creams and socializing — design this so they can survive a split second bad choice.
Do not design it to speed up the flow of traffic. Let automobilists wait longer. They have other options. There’s always the bus.
To riff off another saying, the best time to fix your roads, West Hartford, was twenty years ago.
The second best time is now.
West Hartford, I know you know how to get giant barriers. I’ve seen them on LaSalle Road and Farmington Avenue, making space for outdoor dining. Obtain more and create a temporary fix for Farmington and Main, which is currently a shining example of your ineptitude. Invest in oversized planters.
Nobody’s asking you to be creative. Other places have already done this. There are guides all over the internet.
This is not the time for for more police presence. It’s not the time to bring on the victim blamers who want to suggest everyone use crosswalks.
But sitting on your collective asses, offering insincere thoughts and prayers, and calling this person’s preventable death an accident? Nah. That’s not something you can do without hearing about it.
Dr. Jaen Andrews
GREAT LETTER, THANK YOU!!!
I live in West Hartford, and I see dangerous driving all the time. At the intersection of Farmington and Main, I see many drivers turning right on red, even with signs clearing stating No Turn On Red. I’ve seen drivers turn left on red, and turn right on red from the middle lane, cutting across vehicles waiting in the right turn lane. I’ve seen crashes on Whitman and Boulevard. I’ve seen cars turning right at reconfigured intersections designed to prevent that — the drivers simply drive around the bump outs. I often see cars driving through stop signs, even at the T-intersection at the foot of the drive leading to Braeburn Elementary School. I see drivers ALL THE TIME on their cell phones, talking and worse, texting.
I don’t feel safe, as a pedestrian, bicyclist, or even driver. I wonder if the roads were designed to force drivers to slow down and pay more attention, would they drive more carefully? I also wonder if anybody in West Hartford has the ability, education, and experience, to suggest design changes to improve safety for ALL ROAD USERS, and whether there is actually any will in this town to implement such changes.
Finally, I will give the town of West Hartford officials Tots and Pears — they are obviously hungry. Or, they are generously sharing their food with the deceased victim of a hit and run driver. Who I think ran a red light at high speed, maybe DUI, but I wonder if I will ever learn what actually happened that day?
Kerri Provost
The UConn Crash Data Repository makes public information from crashes:
https://www.ctcrash.uconn.edu/QueryTool2.action
People can see for themselves what was involved in crashes. Of course, in many cases you’re not getting information from witnesses — just what police hear from drivers and passengers. (Those attempting to leave pedestrian-blaming comments which I assure you will never be published here are welcome to scour that data to learn how often pedestrians are doing all the correct, legal things when drivers strike them with cars.)
I don’t think it matters if this was a DUI or not, except that when we talk consequences– a drunk/impaired bad driver typically gets more of a prison sentence than a sober bad driver. I’m not convinced it’s appropriate to tack on time because of impairment or reduce time because of sobriety. Look at these two cases from recent years. In Glastonbury, a teen drove car into elderly woman checking her mail, then drove away. She didn’t check on victim. She was very likely playing on her phone, but sober. She got three months in prison. That’s nothing. She could play that off as part of a gap year and nobody would be the wiser unless they Googled her name. Meanwhile, an adult drove into man providing roadside assistance, apparently stayed on scene, and gets 4.5 YEARS. The difference? Intoxication. I think 4.5 years is a reasonable sentence for murder with a car, whether someone is drunk or sober. Three months? That’s a joke.
We keep getting examples ( tinyurl.com/CTPedestrianMurders2022 ) of how poor road design and poor enforcement kills. Automated enforcement — red light / speed cameras — would mean much more predictable penalties. If someone thinks they can get away with running a light or speeding — because what are the odds a cop is around, paying attention, and going to pull them over? — they are more likely to chance it. If they know that a camera is going to record their failure to stop every time, they’re going to adjust behavior. The combination of automated enforcement along with smarter road design will reduce the number of severe crashes.
When there is a push for automated enforcement, opponents try to fight them on an array of ridiculous reasons, including that there are more crashes. What they don’t want to say is that these are lower speed crashes resulting in mainly property damage only. Crashes with severe and fatal injuries are greatly reduced.
The same for road design. Having bumpouts and such does not guarantee no crashes. They reduce the number of crashes with serious and fatal injuries.
Design is better than enforcement. Design is more expensive than enforcement. The tactical urbanism approach of using materials like barriers, giant flower pots, etc., is a cheap(er) way to gain temporary improvements while working out longer term changes. Like I said, nobody representing/working for the Town of West Hartford needs to be especially smart or creative — plenty of other places have used these methods elsewhere. But, all WH has to do is take a look at how it changed LaSalle Road. Before, I *never* used the mid-block crossing. Now, it’s doable.
All of this is to say that your remark about political will is 100% accurate. That’s what determines if we see anything positive come out of this man’s entirely preventable death last week. Does the Town of West Hartford have the political will to make changes?
Richard
Kerri
Thank you once again for an excellent article. I have emailed this open letter to the council, mayor, and town manager of West Hartford. So far only Alberto Cortes has answered. Who among them will be brave enough to send in a comment, thanking you publicly for this letter and vowing action, real action? Of course, then it will be who will follow through?
I have always had a hard time crossing at South Main and Farmington. I have noticed people in the lane to turn on Farmington turning even when the walk light is on. I hate having to cross that intersection to get to the bus stop. Drivers coming from the north speed across Farmington and down South Main. One first step is to give us more time to cross the street all the streets. I just don’t feel safe there, so I limit myself to only going to the center every once in a while. Then I plan my trip with avoidance in mind. I have been a walker almost all my life and I take the bus and I will say out loud to anyone, West Hartford Center is not all that walkable and in that area it can be dangerous.
Most of us who walk or take the bus, know, and follow the rules and regulations but still they blame us when an accident happens. When the walk light is on, I do not expect any driver to turn on red, but I have lost count of the times I have almost been hit.
I beg to differ. I think murder by car should be at the very least 10 years and I do not care what condition, age, or limitation the driver may have. We all know how some people drive and more than likely have yelled, “Go back to driving school.” So, there should be no problem in finding solutions and fixing the problems that exist. As council people and as a mayor that is your jobs. This has been brought to your attention now action is required. Let us hope that as they thank you for bringing this to their attention there is action, real action.
I can’t even get my words out to respond to this: “Amanda Martin of the West Hartford Police said, “I understand it’s an inconvenience, but someone lost their life today.”
If I could, I would start with, Someone was murdered today by a reckless driver as he was standing on the sidewalk.
Kerri Provost
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Richard.
I don’t want to be thanked for this. I want politicians to do their damn jobs, whether they are paid or volunteer. Someone was killed because of their ongoing negligence; those in power are obligated to right their mistakes, and they should not expect to be asked nicely with polite words for this.
I expect that with nearly every pedestrian crash, we will see the mental gymnastics to “excuse” the driver. The only exception will be if it turns out she was under the influence. Otherwise, watch the exonerative language flow.
I will correct you on something: none of these are accidents.
That sounds like either an Act of God or that a toddler made a mistake in his pants.
The Town of West Hartford did not allow bad road design to persist by accident. It’s possible they know and want to fix it, but if they have not found the money, they haven’t prioritized. Still not an accident.
If a driver is bombing down the road, that’s not an accident.
There are plenty of people who do not belong in the driver’s seat for a number of reasons. That the DMV considers license renewal to be a matter of writing a check rather than taking the test again, not an accident.
There’s poor policy and poor design at the center of this.
Just because the previous generation made atrocious design and policy choices does not mean we’re stuck with it. We can reject some or all of it, and should be making steps in that direction now.
Kevin Wyman
Or perhaps people should wait to judge until all the facts are known. The driver suffered a medical event. This was an unfortunate accident. My heart grieves for both the gentleman killed and the driver.
That said, people drive too fast in town. Speed was probably not a factor in this case. Poor road design either. There but for the grace of God, goes I.
Kerri Provost
Design so that if someone is having a medical event behind the wheel, that person cannot achieve speed or a direction that will kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk.
It’s too easy to put all the blame on drivers, which is why that is not what this piece does. I am interested in designing roads and vehicles for safety, period.
And while West Hartford is not alone in having poorly designed roads, West Hartford loves to pretend that its shit doesn’t stink.
Kerri Provost
Look at the street design in 90% of fatal crashes:
tinyurl.com/CTPedestrianMurders2022
tinyurl.com/VisionZeroCT2021
And tell me with a straight face that this has anything to do with “grace of God” instead of street design?
Gina
Have you heard of the YouTube channel Not Just Bikes? I highly recommend it. He compares North American snd Dutch infrastructure, especially our car-dependent cities vs their walkable bikeable cities. It’s both infuriating and enlightening.
Kerri Provost
There are many global examples that a different reality is possible. People created these problems and people can resolve them, and it won’t look like raising the speed limit or splashing down a little paint.
Kerri Provost
It should be noted that one of these comments asserts that the driver had a medical event. It was also rumored that the driver was intoxicated. Another rumor was that she was speeding.
This letter, for those who miss nuance, is not about the individual killed or the individual who killed. It’s about how the system enables people to be needlessly injured and killed by cars, and how the Town of West Hartford will work hard to avoid making the kinds of meaningful changes that prevent this.