NEWS

String of pedestrian deaths in Salem raises questions

Alisha Roemeling
Statesman Journal
Pedestrians in Salem are expected to follow laws for crosswalks just as motorists are expected to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians in them. A copy of pedestrian rules, such as this one, are attached to poles throughout the downtown core.

A recent string of fatal pedestrian crashes in Salem is raising questions about pedestrian safety.

Between Dec. 26 and Jan. 15 three vehicle crashes involving pedestrians resulted in four deaths.

• David McGregor, 77, of Salem, was attempting to cross Center Street, in an unmarked crosswalk, when he was struck by a 2005 full-sized van around 5:45 a.m. on Jan. 15. McGregor was pronounced dead at the scene.

• Christine and Michael Crossland were hit by a pick-up truck while they walked on a sidewalk along Market Street NE around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 6. Both were sent to the Salem Hospital in critical condition and died within days of each other after the crash.

• Michael Johnson, 63,was hit by a Chevrolet Camaro and killed on around when he walked into the path of the vehicle on Summer Street NE and 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 26. Johnson was pronounced dead on the scene.

All three crashes took place in darkness. No drivers have been found to be at fault.

Dick Yates, 63, of Salem says that the root of the problem is unaware drivers.

"In any intersection, whether it's marked or not, pedestrians have the right of way," Yates said. "The law is clear about what an unmarked crosswalk is and that drivers must yield to a pedestrian in an unmarked crosswalk. I think that 80 percent of people just don't know that."

Yates, who lives in South Salem, said that he often waits for long periods before crossing the street in unmarked crosswalks, which in Oregon are defined as "the imagined extension of a sidewalk or shoulder across a street at an intersection," according to Multnomah County's website.

"At least 95 percent of cars do not even slow down, although they are required by law to stop and wait for you to cross," Yates said. "There can even be a car in one lane that stops, as required, yet cars in the other lanes just cruise by, oblivious."

Some think that pedestrians should always have the right-of-way regardless of weather conditions, time of day, or the color of their clothing.

Michael Miller, 54, of Salem, a neighbor of one of the fatal crash victims, said that "Daniel McGregor's death never should have happened."

According to Miller, McGregor was 77 years old and used a cane when he walked. The day he was killed he was using his cane to cross the street in an unmarked crosswalk around 5:45 a.m. and was struck by a large van. According to Miller, who is also disabled, the only reason he was crossing the street that dark, rainy morning was to get to his car, which legally had to be parked across the street.

"Our neighborhood has residential parking spots for those that live in the area," Miller said. "He was new to the area and hadn't gotten one yet, but in my opinion we shouldn't have them here."

Miller said that even if there was a marked crosswalk at the intersection, someone would most likely still have been hurt.

"There are a lot of lights right there," Miller said. "Today's society is just so wrapped up in themselves and everyone is so busy, but the reality is that if a pedestrian is at the corner, they have the right of way to cross the street."

Others said they believe that drivers aren't likely to take pedestrian safety seriously until they've been affected by a crash firsthand.

Richard Derfler, a longtime friend of Christine and Michael Crossland, said that unless it's a situation that affects you personally, it's just another accident.

"I'm more aware at crosswalks and pedestrians in general now," Derfler said. "Last Sunday, we barely missed a walker at night in all black clothing with black umbrella in the middle of the road on a blind curve. If the (Crosslands') accident hadn't happened, we would have surely hit her."

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a fatal pedestrian crash that blocked Center Street NE between 17th and Statesman streets NE on Thursday, January 15, 2015, in Salem.

By the numbers

According to Lt. Dave Okada of the Salem Police Department and data from the Oregon Department of Transportation, the four fatalities that occurred from Dec. 26 to Jan. 15 are the only ones that occurred in Salem dating back to Dec. 1, 2013.

Additionally, there were three more potentially life-threatening pedestrian vs. vehicle crashes in Salem, Okada said.

Between Dec. 1, 2013 and April 30, 2014 there were 22 pedestrian-related crashes in Salem that injured 25 people, according to data from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The majority of the crashes happened in intersections during the day, and more than half of them happened when the roads were wet.

Local officials say the while fatalities are not typical for Salem, police are familiar with pedestrian crashes.

"This high amount of pedestrian fatalities happening in such a short time is not what we normally see," Okada said. "It's not a trend."

In October 2003, Walt Myers, Salem's police chief at the time, was hit by a car while walking in a downtown crosswalk.

According to Lt. John Hoffmeister, Myers was walking from a downtown meeting back to the police department about 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2003, when he stepped off a curb at the northeast corner of Trade and High streets SE after the "walk" sign lit up.

Myers was treated for bumps and bruises at Salem Hospital and released.

The driver, Beth Gregg, 43, of Salem told police that she didn't see Myers and was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian.

Pedestrian safety campaigns are conducted each year by the Salem Police Department in an effort to to address pedestrian and crosswalk safety through education and enforcement.

In July 2014, during a pedestrian safety "sting," Salem PD issued 50 citations to motorists who failed to yield to people in the crosswalk.

According to Oregon law, drivers must stop before entering a crosswalk for pedestrians who are crossing in marked or unmarked crosswalks.

Eight officers participated in the project, which took place at Commercial Street NE at the intersection of Columbia Street in North Salem, where there is a marked crosswalk.

Officers were out for four hours, during which an officer dressed in plain clothes would cross the street in the crosswalk. During that time period, 56 drivers were contacted and 50 citations issued for those failing to yield to the pedestrian.

On a larger scale, the state of Oregon is in line with the national average for pedestrian deaths, according data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in May 2014.

Lou Torres, a public affairs specialist for ODOT, said that there were 31 urban pedestrian fatalities and 17 rural pedestrian fatalities in Oregon in 2014 which was similar to 2013 when there were 37 urban and 15 rural.

"If you look at our history of fatalities, there has been a gradual decline over the last 25 years both nationally and in Oregon," Torres said. "There was a low point in 2009 and we have seen an increase since."

A chart provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation shows pedestrian fatalities in Oregon since 1989.

A report published by ODOT in October 2014, there were 850 crashes involving pedestrians in Oregon in 2013. Of those 850 crashes there were 876 actual pedestrians involved 814 were injured, 52 were killed. In 2012, there was 8 percent more pedestrian involved crashes than in 2013.

According to the same report, 395 drivers, in Oregon, involved in pedestrian related crashes failed to yield to a pedestrian in 2013, 73 percent of which made an error when doing so.

Fatal pedestrian crashes had much different numbers.

In Oregon in 2013, nine drivers failed to yield to a pedestrian, and more than 40 percent of those them made an error when doing so.

In 2013, the last year for which complete data is available, 4,735 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States. That total represented 13 percent of all traffic deaths that year; a decade earlier, pedestrian deaths had been 14 percent of all road fatalities, according to the report that was released in December 2014.

Although a large number of fatal pedestrian crashes happened in a short period of time this winter in Salem, it doesn't seem to be the norm for the area or the nation, according to local and statewide data.

According to local law enforcement, the future of the issue lies with both the pedestrians and the drivers.

"Visibility and awareness are the biggest issues," Okada said. "We can cite hundreds of people a year, but that doesn't mean there will be any less pedestrian vs. vehicle crashes. Pedestrians and drivers should both work to be visible and also see others."

aroemeling@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399 6884, or on Twitter @alisharoemeling

More information

To read more about each of the pedestrian fatalities, go to StatesmanJournal.com/news

For additional information about pedestrian crashes and fatalities from the Oregon Department of Transportation, visit oregon.gov/ODOT and search for crash data reports. There, you can find crash analysis and reporting statistics going back to 2003.