According to UConn’s crash data dashboard, through Nov. 4, we’ve had at least 53 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in 2024, and at least four in October alone - a near record year.
Safety leaders are searching for solutions when it comes to how to stem the surge in pedestrian traffic deaths in our state. It turns out the best solution might just be a simple one: more sidewalks!
It’s what’s happening in Vernon when it comes to pedestrian safety, and it’s something we need more of right now. Connecticut is almost on pace to break its record of 72 pedestrian deaths in 2022.
Public works crews have begun a $1.35-million project that includes linking sidewalks across town, repairing them and adding 8,000 feet of new sidewalk.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
This will take place in five Vernon locations.
Vernon Mayor Daniel Champagne said, “Every time you increase your infrastructure, it’s important, and sidewalks are just as important, so we went through an entire road project where we did most of our roads in over Vernon. And now it was time to turn our attention to our sidewalks, number one for public safety, number two liability."
"We have some of these old sidewalks that we needed to replace. We also wanted to make it so that schoolchildren walking to school have a safe place to stay off the roads to get there,” Champagne continued.
Investigations
Having more sidewalks in good condition is one of the simplest and most essential ingredients to bringing down our state’s pedestrian death count, according to Wes Marshall, a civil engineering professor who wrote a book about traffic safety and lived in Connecticut while getting his PhD.
“I moved to Connecticut in 2000, I moved to Wethersfield and like the street off of where our apartment complex was, the Berlin Turnpike, and I, all of a sudden, I couldn't go anywhere without being in a car,” Marshall said.
And this work is getting noticed by people like Jason Payne, who said he appreciates the town trying to keep everyone safer.
“This road, people always driving faster than what they should, it becomes a safety hazard. It’s good that they’re doing something, listening to the people, opposed to just them in office, finally getting some field work done,” Payne said.
And when it comes to putting in sidewalks, you could not pick a better time of the year.
Traffic safety experts say the next few months have some of the highest rates of pedestrians hit by vehicles, as we are dealing with declining daylight.
