Fourth pedestrian death in New Haven brings calls for more traffic enforcement
NEW HAVEN — Despite 1,000 more traffic stops so far this year compared with 2019, the number of pedestrians killed by motor vehicles has hit four, three more than the number of homicides to date this year.
Mayor Justin Elicker said Monday police had increased their traffic enforcement by the 1,000 stops but that the city needs to improve in reducing the number of cars hitting pedestrians and bicycles, including with traffic-calming infrastructure and education.
Also Monday, Capt. Anthony Duff, spokesman for New Haven police, said police had applied for a warrant to charge the driver in a Feb. 13 accident with second-degree reckless endangerment. A car was caught on video smashing into a walker a woman was using to cross Whalley Avenue at Blake Street in Westville village. At the time, the driver was issued a warning.
Duff did not release the driver’s name because, he said, “that may breach an agreement made between investigators and the operator or his attorney.”
Efforts to increase traffic safety include legislation in the General Assembly that would increase fines for distracted driving, enable cities and towns to reduce speed limits below 25 mph, among other measures. A public hearing will be held March 2 in the Legislative Office Building.
State Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee, said another of the proposals would change the law about when a car must stop for a person at a crosswalk. Now, the pedestrian needs to have entered the crosswalk for a car to have to stop, which Lemar called “a horrible standard, which is not the case in most states in the country.”
The bill would require vehicles to stop if a pedestrian were standing at a crosswalk, about to step into the street.
Another bill would give a portion of the fine for speeding and reckless or distracted driving to the municipality.
On Sunday, Govinda B. Kandel, 68, was fatally injured when he was hit about 8:35 p.m. on upper Middletown Avenue at Cross Street. He was the fourth pedestrian to die after being hit by a motor vehicle this year. There were nine pedestrian victims in New Haven last year.
Also Sunday, the city recorded its first homicide of the year, when Dashown Myers, 18, was shot at a Quinnipiac Avenue housing complex.
Kandel was one of two pedestrians struck Sunday. The other, hit while crossing Dixwell Avenue between Argyle and Gibbs streets about 3 a.m., was in “critical, but stable” condition Monday, Duff said. A passenger in the car also was slightly injured.
Lucille Patterson, 37, of New Haven, was charged with second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, driving under the influence, failure to use care near a vulnerable person and distracted driving after she hit the pedestrian Dixwell Avenue, police said. When officers arrived, they found Patterson holding onto the pedestrian to comfort her, police said.
Lemar said the vulnerable user law was strengthened last year. “The injury standard used to be significant bodily harm,” he said. “You had to be near death, and we changed the standard to cover more injuries.”
There have been six pedestrians hit by motor vehicles so far this year. On Jan. 14, Arthur Bastek, 50, was hit when he was walking across Ella T. Grasso Boulevard at Columbus Avenue. He died at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Kevin A. Cunningham, 55, was struck on Whalley Avenue between Winthrop Avenue and Norton Street on Jan. 22. He also died after being taken to the hospital.
The third pedestrian killed by a motor vehicle was the victim of a hit and run. Gilberto Molina, 44, was hit Feb. 17 on Columbus Avenue near West Street. He was brought to the hospital with severe injuries, where he died.
“This issue is one of the reasons I initially got involved in politics as a person who walks and bikes around the city,” Elicker said. “I have also felt our city can do more to address issues around dangerous driving.”
Besides increased enforcement, he said more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, such as speed humps and protected bicycle lanes, would be important. Also, he said, “New Haven has not done a great job in educating drivers on the importance of obeying the laws.”
Lemar said that as cars have become bigger and safer, distracted driving has also increased. “You’ve now got a faster-moving vehicle in which the driver does not feel in any physical danger … checking their phones,” he said.
“We’ve got to send the message … that we treat traffic safety as paramount in our communities.”
Aaron Goode, who is a member of a Safe Streets/Complete Streets group, said, “The way I see it, each of these deaths is a preventable tragedy, even when it is found to be an ‘accident.’ We need a whole host of different strategies. There needs to be a multipronged approach.”
He said the “hot spots” that pose the most danger to pedestrians are well known: Dixwell and Whalley avenues and Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.
“We need sustained enforcement because we have a very lax, permissive culture right now about distracted driving,” Goode said.
The Safe Streets group will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Beaver Hill substation, 332 Whalley Ave., at which the legislation and other initiatives will be discussed.
Another member of the group, Rob Rocke, who also is on the board of Elm City Cycling, said the group hopes to attract elected officials, city staff and the public.
“I think the policy has to be zero tolerance, aggressive traffic enforcement” and an end to police “sympathizing with the driver” when a pedestrian is hit, he said.
“Some days you feel like you’re making a little bit of progress, the four deaths and you feel like you’re not making any progress,” he said. “What I see on my day-to-day travels around town are pretty blatant motor vehicle driving and I don’t see the enforcement.”
edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
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