Truck accidents can significantly impact people and their communities. One such community in Georgia is the Columbus State University community, which saw one of its own killed in a pedestrian crash with a dump truck.
Near schools and universities, it’s common knowledge that people are going to be on or near the roads. Drivers should know to be cautious to prevent injuries and accidents. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.
In this case, the man was attempting to cross in the crosswalk when he was struck by the truck. The crosswalk has only an eight-second timer, giving people few precious seconds to get across the road safely. That doesn’t excuse drivers who aren’t watching for pedestrians entering crosswalks or excuse them from waiting if someone has not yet made it across after the “Don’t Walk” signal activates.
People with limited mobility, as well as the elderly and disabled, all struggle to get across the road if the crosswalk’s timer isn’t set to a long enough time. The solution to this is to increase the time pedestrians have to cross, but it’s not going to guarantee that crashes won’t happen.
Why would pedestrian accidents happen in crosswalks?
Most people stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, but some may try to rush them by moving forward or try to hurry across the crosswalk by driving quickly behind a pedestrian who they believe is out of the way.
Drivers must wait for pedestrians to clear the crosswalk completely. Doing this is one of the best ways to prevent injuries that lead to deaths like in the above case.