An Allegheny student was struck by a car while crossing North Main Street on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 14. The student did not suffer any major injuries and returned from the hospital just a handful of hours after the incident, according to Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington.
“We are very grateful that this wasn’t worse,” Binnington said.
The student was walking in the crosswalk between Baldwin Hall and the Henderson Campus Center when they were hit at 5:33 p.m. Another student was also in the crosswalk at the same time but was on the opposite side of the road from the oncoming vehicle. Several nearby witnesses to the accident quickly called emergency services. An ambulance arrived at 5:36 p.m., and city police arrived just one minute later. Public Safety was notified of the incident at 5:38 p.m., and an officer arrived on the scene at 5:41 p.m. as the student was being loaded into the ambulance, according to Public Safety Detective Kurt Sitler.
The car was traveling north on North Main Street, according to the Meadville Tribune. Binnington said the car was able to brake quickly, which suggested to him that it was not traveling at a high speed. He is aware of who the driver of the car is but is unable to discuss details.
No charges were filed in the incident, according to the Meadville Tribune.
President Ron Cole, ’87, expressed his relief that the student did not suffer serious injuries and acknowledged student concerns about the incident in a campus-wide email on Friday, Nov. 15.
“We know that members of the community have expressed concerns about crossing safety, especially during dark and rainy conditions, as was the case last evening,” Cole wrote.
Efforts are already underway to alleviate these concerns. Binnington said the college has been working for the past 18 months to install Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at the Baldwin crosswalk. Once installed, pedestrians can push a button on the sign to make it flash while they cross the street, catching drivers’ attention and prompting them to slow down.
“The slower we can have people driving through that area of campus, the safer it’s going to be for everybody crossing the street,” Binnington said.
The process for securing the signs has been long because North Main is a state highway, meaning any alterations to it must be cleared with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the city of Meadville, according to Binnington. The college is paying for the cost of the signs.
In his email, Cole wrote the project is in its final phase and that he hopes to see the beacons installed by the middle of spring semester.
“Traffic safety experts see these as one of the easiest and most effective measures that can be taken to alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians,” Cole wrote.
Binnington said the Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons are intended to augment student safety while crossing an already mostly safe street.
“I don’t want students to think it’s unsafe, right?” Binnington said. “There are hundreds, if not thousands of crossings of that street without incident. But one near miss is too many.”
In the past five years, Binnington said he is aware of fewer than six near-misses.
However, in the past 15 years, there have been several more serious incidents. In 2015, Hannah Morris, ’17, was struck and killed while crossing North Main Street in front of North Village II on the evening of Oct. 29. The accident was the second in three years on the street involving a student, according to Campus reporting. In response to those incidents, the college added the lights that now line the western side of North Main Street on campus, undertook a traffic study and sourced ideas from students about how to make crossings safer, according to Campus reporting.
Binnington said improving pedestrian safety on North Main is a priority and that he is proud of how students responded to the recent accident.
“The community rallied around in a really positive way,” Binnington said. “They saw a bad thing happen and they took action to try and help, which is great.”