Pedestrian fatalities climb in Memphis
City would need a big federal grant to make improvements
Lee Soult retired in 2013 from Wells Lamont, a glove company in Memphis. He spent his retirement visiting his wife in a nursing home and cheering on his favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts. “We grew up in Indianapolis, so my brother loved all sports teams from our hometown,” said Bob Soult, who still lives in Indiana. “We just got back in contact with my brother recently and now he is gone.”
On April 27, 70-yearold Lee Soult was hit by a Dodge pickup truck as he crossed Poplar Avenue and Highland. The driver remained on the scene and was not charged in the fatal collision.
Soult lived nearby and his brother said he does not know where his brother was headed around 8 p.m. when he was hit and killed.
“I do know the police said he was not in the crosswalk,” Bob Soult said. “He was a good man, and it is a shame he did not get to enjoy his retirement and his life a little while longer.”
Soult is one of eight pedestrians who have been killed in Memphis to date this year.
Nationwide, pedestrian deaths have increased 46 percent since reaching
More
America’s love of SUVs can be deadly for pedestrians.
their lowest point in 2009 and account for 16 percent of crash fatalities, according to data in a new study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In 2016, almost 6,000 pedestrians died in this country after being hit by vehicles, according to the NHTSA study.
Last year, 37 pedestrians died on the streets in Memphis. In 2016, 34 pedestrians were hit and killed, and in 2015, 30 pedestrians died.
Memphis police Col. Sam Hines, head of the Memphis Police Department’s traffic division, said pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise in the past few years.
“Memphis has a lot of foot traffic, coupled with people not crossing at the crosswalks,” Hines said. “I don’t think Memphis has large problems with people being hit in the crosswalks; we have them, but I think our trend falls along the national trend of 70 to 75 percent of them are happening at non-intersections and at non-crosswalks and the interstate too.”
Officials in Memphis also pointed to several other reasons for the increase in pedestrian accidents and deaths in the city, including poverty, distracted drivers and aging infrastructure.
Nicholas Oyler, bikeway/pedestrian program manager for the city of Memphis, often hops on one of several bicycles the city allows employees to use and heads to a meeting downtown. He knows firsthand the dangers of biking or walking in Memphis.
He agreed that pedestrians not crossing in the crosswalks is an issue, but pointed to the aging streets, sidewalks and pedestrian crosswalks in the city as the bigger problem that needs to be addressed to help decrease pedestrian deaths.
“It is a tragic issue and doesn’t seem to be getting better,” Oyler said. “The main issue I would say is that our streets are dangerous by design.”
Oyler added, “For decades when we designed and built streets in Memphis, like in most American cities, we prioritized the efficient flow of car traffic over the needs of any other users of the streets, and that led to the detriment of people who were walking, people who were biking or taking public transit.”
“When you design a street to move cars as quickly and efficiently as possible, safety decreases for everyone,” he said. “Speed and safety do not go hand in hand.”
Oyler said to fix the infrastructure issue and make Memphis streets more pedestrian-friendly, it would cost the city $20 million a year over the next two decades, according to the city’s 20-year pedestrian safety action plan created three years ago.
“The findings from the action plan were kind of a shocker,” Oyler said. “Basically, it showed a third of all of our pedestrian Source: Memphis Police Department infrastructure is in a state of immediate repair.”
The city would have to get federal and state grants to make a dent in the repairs needed, Oyler said.
He said the city has identified 20 pilot projects that it plans to tackle to help make the city more pedestrian-friendly.
The first project will be installing a pedestrian crossing on Poplar Avenue in front of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.
In March, a 58-year-old man was hit by a car as he attempted to cross the street there. No charges were filed against the driver, who stayed on the scene.
“Poplar Avenue near the library is one of the areas we see a lot of pedestrian traffic,” Oyler said.
Pedestrian accidents occur on streets throughout the city, authorities said but some of the top areas are Midtown and East Memphis.
“It is spread out. It happens in all parts of the city,” Oyler said. “I can say that we know people who are low income, African-Americans, seniors and children are over-represented as the victims of these crashes.”
The making of a pedestrian-friendly city
Suzanne Carlson, transportation and mobility project manager for Innovate Memphis, hosted a series of panel discussions last year in an effort to help people better understand pedestrian safety.
“We wanted to have a conservation of what we can do around Memphis to decrease traffic fatalities and increase mobility,” Carlson said.
She said the discussions were helpful, but now her organization is working with the city on its comprehensive plan that includes looking at all transit in the city.
“We are not a pedestrian-friendly city,” Carlson said. “People taking transit or walking to neighborhood schools or walking to neighborhood business are at risk in trying to get to their destinations. We are working with the city on the transit plan that will look at creating guidelines and policies, so that all our streets are safe not only for all users, but for our most vulnerable users: pedestrians and bicyclists.”