Drivers keep hitting pedestrians on the same Richmond streets
The next day, a woman died in a hit-and-run crash on West Main outside Helen's. Weeks later, a driver in an SUV fatally hit a man on Hull Street.
The big picture: Despite a drop in pedestrian deaths in 2024, Richmond is still far from its goal of zero traffic-related fatalities.
City data shows most of the severe pedestrian injuries or deaths in Richmond over the past two years happened along those same roads: West/East Main, Chamberlayne, Hull and Broad.
By the numbers: On average, there are 133 pedestrian-involved crashes in Richmond each year, per the city's dashboard for Vision Zero, a plan to make streets safer.
An average of 158 pedestrians have been injured and seven have been killed annually since 2022.
The number of pedestrian deaths in Richmond fell to six last year, down from nine in 2023.
It was a similar pattern statewide: There was a 9% drop in pedestrian deaths last year compared with 2023.
State of play: The city has been pushing to improve pedestrian safety in recent years by adding speed bumps, curb extensions, pedestrian crossing signs and traffic cameras around school zones.
One of the latest bumps is on Robinson Street near Monument.
One radar trailer was added to the West Main intersection where the woman was killed last month. Another is down the street on West Cary.
City spokesperson Julian Walker tells Axios the trailers are temporary and are generally moved by the Richmond Police Department within two weeks. But they're deployed "as needed on roads identified as areas of concern by community members."
What's next: Last Friday, Richmond's Department of Public Works announced additional, more permanent, changes starting this week and next month. They include:
Narrowing Midlothian Turnpike by one lane to reduce car speeds near pedestrian walkways.
Adding curb extensions and street art on the Laburnum Avenue intersection near Linwood Holton Elementary, which has been a problem for years.
Adding a raised bus boarding platform on Mosby Street near Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School so passengers don't have to step into traffic to get off or on the bus.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
4 hours ago
- Axios
GOP populists plot to repeatedly bypass Mike Johnson
House Speaker Mike Johnson 's (R-La.) right flank is trying to bypass him repeatedly next month by forcing votes on releasing the Epstein files and banning congressional stock trading. Why it matters: The tool these lawmakers are planning to use — the discharge petition — has been the source of growing controversy in the House in recent years. A discharge petition allows the House rank-and-file to force a vote on any piece of legislation if at least 218 members — a majority of the chamber — sign on. Top Republicans have discouraged the use of the maneuver, arguing it would effectively turn over control of the House floor to Democrats, but GOP populists have increasingly ignored that guidance. State of play: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) wants to force a vote on Rep. Tim Burchett's (R-Tenn.) bill to ban members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from trading or owning stocks. Tamping down congressional stock trading has been a cause célèbre for lawmakers in both parties for years, but congressional leaders have largely stonewalled their efforts to secure a vote. Another discharge petition from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on forcing the release of the Justice Department's documents on Jeffrey Epstein is set to trigger a vote within days of the House's return to session next month. Between the lines: The Epstein petition is widely expected to obtain 218 signatures, with most Democrats and several right-wing Republicans likely to sign on. Luna's petition may be more contentious, sources said, as there have already months of bipartisan negotiations around carefully crafting a stock trading bill that can pass with support from leadership. Several Democrats told Axios that Luna may not get the bipartisan support she needs to pass her bill unless she coordinates with that bipartisan group. Flashback: Luna previously secured 218 signatures this spring for a vote on allowing House members who are new parents to vote by proxy for up to three months, but the vote never came to pass. Johnson slipped a provision into an unrelated procedural measure to kill the discharge, but it failed. He then scrapped House votes until Luna agreed to a compromise. One House Republican involved in that saga, speaking on the condition of anonymity, predicted that Johnson would have a tougher time trying to spike the Epstein and stock trading discharge petitions. That is "much harder to do on these issues since they've had a lot more national attention," the lawmaker told Axios, "Epstein especially." Zoom out: The Epstein push is a clear revolt against both President Trump, who has dismissed the matter, and Johnson, who has called for transparency but quashed several rogue efforts to release the files. Johnson has indicated his support for a stock trading ban, but it's unclear if he would support doing so through a discharge petition that could undermine his authority. Trump, for his part, has voiced support for a stock trading ban in theory, but opposed a bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended the ban to future presidents and vice presidents. A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles Times
12 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
How many kids must die before L.A. makes streets safer?
Two weeks ago, fourth-grader Nadir Gavarrete was crossing the intersection at New Hampshire Avenue and 4th Street in Koreatown on an e-scooter alongside his 19-year-old brother, Carlos, when both were struck by an alleged drunk driver turning left through a stop sign. Nadir was pronounced dead at the scene, and Carlos was taken to a hospital in serious condition. Although we often refer to incidents like these as 'accidents,' the truth is they're entirely preventable. We live in a city where a pedestrian is injured every five hours and killed every two days. The status quo places L.A. among cities with the highest per capita pedestrian death rates in the U.S. (2.9 per 100,000), according to Los Angeles Police Department data. Koreatown is one of the densest parts of Los Angeles — at 44,000 people per square mile, it's more crowded than most New York City boroughs. Nearly every major street in Koreatown is on the city's 'high injury network' list — the 6% of streets that cause 70% of the traffic injuries and deaths. In other words, L.A. knows how dangerous Koreatown's streets can be. As a result, 14 years ago, in 2011, L.A. applied for a federal grant to improve safety along several city streets, specifically choosing to focus on the intersection of New Hampshire and 4th for one of its projects. The city won the grant money and kicked off community meetings to discuss installing a roundabout at the intersection, as well as adding enhanced crosswalks and other safety improvements to the immediate area. When I was appointed to the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee in 2019, eight years after those initial community meetings, we were given a presentation by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation that showed a rendering of a beautiful and significantly safer intersection at New Hampshire and 4th, full of crosswalks and traffic calming, and featuring a roundabout. Six years later, there is still no roundabout. The city has yet to even break ground despite holding years of community meetings. Meanwhile, now a 9-year-old boy is dead and his family is left shattered. There are numerous bureaucratic reasons why a single intersection improvement could take more than 14 years. I'm not interested in them. What city leaders need to understand is that when they fail to act with any sense of urgency — even when they've won funding to do so — the inaction has real-life consequences, this time in the form of a little boy's life. What will it take for Los Angeles to have a sense of urgency in actually making our streets safer? We currently spend more on legal settlements to those hurt and killed on our streets than we do on Vision Zero, the city's half-baked effort to reduce traffic deaths. Since Los Angeles declared itself a Vision Zero City in 2015, with the ultimate aim of having no one killed in car crashes on city streets by 2025, deaths and injuries have only gotten worse. In the last few years we've had at least three children hit and killed while walking to school. And yet the city's leaders — facing a budget crisis, much of it of their own making — perpetually underfund LADOT and street safety in general. If a rash of falling elevators killed someone in L.A. every two days and injured someone every five hours, we'd immediately stop using them as the city stepped in to investigate and solve the problem. Yet we seem to just accept the deadly status quo of traffic fatalities as the cost of doing business while walking L.A.'s streets. We don't have to live this way. There are cities that have actually achieved Vision Zero, such as Hoboken, N.J., which has now tallied eight consecutive years without a traffic-related death thanks to significant updates at curbs, crosswalks and intersections. New York City is also steadily making progress on its Vision Zero goals, leading to a per capita pedestrian death rate nearly one-third that of L.A. Los Angeles remains an outlier and will continue to be one unless we properly and urgently fund our Vision Zero efforts and remove the bureaucratic red tape that slows progress: There's no need for 10 community meetings and buy-in from an entire neighborhood to make smart, lifesaving improvements. Michael Schneider is the founder of Streets for All.
Axios
19 hours ago
- Axios
Violent crime in border cities fell below national rate in 2024
Several U.S. border communities saw violent crime drop below the national average in 2024, as nationwide rates fell to 20-year lows, according to new FBI data analyzed by Axios. Why it matters: The findings from last year run counter to claims by President Trump and GOP leaders, who painted border towns as crime hotspots because of newly arrived immigrants. The big picture: Eleven border cities examined annually by Axios — Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and El Paso in Texas; Sunland Park in New Mexico; Nogales and Yuma in Arizona; and Calexico and San Diego in California — had an average violent crime rate of 356.5 per 100,000 residents. That was a sizable drop from 2023 and was slightly below the national average of 359.1 violent crimes per 100,000 residents last year, FBI numbers show. Between the lines: The 11 border communities, all of them majority-Latino, had a homicide rate of 2.5 per 100,000 residents — half of the national average of 5 per 100,000. Four of the border cities — Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Sunland Park and Nogales — reported no homicides in 2024, the data show. El Paso and Yuma had the highest homicide rate among the border communities with 2.9 per 100,000, still well below the national average. The intrigue: McAllen — located across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, one of the most dangerous places in the Americas — had one of the lowest violent crime rates on the border. Zoom out: The border communities had low crime rates before Trump took office, boosted border security and canceled millions of dollars in federal money for crime prevention programs. Early numbers for 2025 indicate that overall violent crime in the border cities is continuing to drop, as Trump's lockdown of the border has greatly reduced illegal crossings. Yes, but: Local officials fear that could change if the administration pulls back on anti-crime grants amid fights over immigration enforcement. The Trump administration is threatening to withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants unless cities agree to work with federal immigration officials on mass deportations. El Paso has been an exception this year, experiencing a 42% jump in homicides in the first half of 2025, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA). The intrigue: Some border cities, such as Laredo and Sunland Park, are dispatching AI-enhanced drones to help fight crime amid officer shortages. Flashback: Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeated false claims that migrants from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East were responsible for jumps in violent crime, despite studies showing violent crime was dropping.
