Fatal pedestrian accident in April spurs Lansdale to talk traffic troubles

A moment of silence in memory of a local resident has spurred another round of traffic talk, one that will continue in detail on Monday.

“Last week, we tragically lost a resident, as a result of a traffic crash in the borough,” said police Chief Mike Trail.

“That investigation remains open, but that has come at a time where this committee, this council, and this community, have been looking at the impacts of traffic in our community. I want to take time to highlight this tragic incident, and hopefully it is a catalyst for substantive change,” he said.

On April 24 a resident was hit by a pickup truck while walking at the intersection of Columbia and South Richardson Avenues, according to reporting from North Penn Now, and suffered severe injuries from the accident, ultimately passing away one week later.

The accident followed years of talks by council and the public safety committee on pedestrian safety and traffic in town, including complaints about drivers speeding and ignoring stop signs on the town’s side streets by drivers bypassing congestion on Main and Broad streets.

Residents continued to raise concerns as several accidents happened along those studied streets last summer, and in October police and the town’s traffic engineer presented early findings of a traffic study examining three study areas and recommending a series of stop signs, speed humps, and changes to curbs and crosswalks.

A second traffic study presentation will be held on Monday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m., and the chief gave a preview Wednesday night on the topics it will touch on.

“A lot of it is a police issue, with respect to enforcement. There are fingers into other areas like zoning, land development, the amount of houses that are built within the community, the amount of cars that are coming here with new residents. My goal is that this is a holistic approach, in a conversation that incorporates all of those ideas,” he said.

Back in February, in the days prior to the Super Bowl, a resident raised concerns about the crosswalk on Main Street near Susquehanna Avenue, and the chief said he and the traffic engineer have since examined that crossing and several others along Main, from Broad Street to Wood Street.

    Lansdale police Chief Mike Trail, center, and traffic engineer Earl Armitage, at podium, introduce a traffic study presentation on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

“We did get guidance on adding more lights and more signage. I don’t have final costs on that, but we’re looking,” he said.

Several residents then sounded off about safety concerns and recent incidents, including the April fatal accident, in calling for more action soon.

“There have been tons of us out here, advocating for more public safety infrastructure .The one constant response has been, ‘We don’t have the money for it.’ I think there’s certainly an argument that could be made that we’re paying for it in blood,” said Alex Sickler.

Sickler asked if residents could donate or help raise funds for certain low-cost improvements like signs and road stripes, and committee chairwoman Meg Currie Teoh said those low-cost fixes could likely be done with resources and staff time already on hand and in the town’s budget.

Larger projects like changing curbs or speed humps would be more costly. Councilman Mike Yetter added that the final study could help the town apply for grant funds to help cover those larger projects.

A resident named Kelly said she attended the study presentation last fall, and said she’s seen firsthand the dangers on local roads, particularly on and around Delaware Avenue.

“It would just be nice to know there’s something coming, specifically for the west ward. I walk it every day, I have a newborn, it’s a huge concern,” she said.

Teoh said she appreciated the input, and the safety upgrades were “definitely a thing I would like to have done two years ago,” but said the town would prefer to have as much feedback as possible before acting — and can look to an adjacent township for lessons learned the hard way.

“For example, not to throw our neighbors under the bus, but Montgomery Township put their wiggly stripes out there, and now they’re grinding them right back off the road. I hear you, I think we want to make sure we’re doing things right, so we have the actual impact we’re looking for,” she said.

The chief added that wavy lane stripes like those on Grays Lane in Montgomery won’t be a recommendation, but adding paint around curbs and crosswalks could be.

Yetter said he recently moved from one street in the study area to another, and recently saw an officer ticket a vehicle parked too close to a corner that blocked lines-of-sight there, and had seen social media posts about similar tickets — and “the comments were generally favorable.” Trail said his department can and does step up enforcement in certain areas, but those residents tend to return to the same spots after enforcement ends.

Julia Sullivan said she lives near the corner of York and Cannon Avenues, and sees chaos on those roads often, causing worries about her toddler.

“My day starts at the kitchen, watching people fly through York Avenue, honking, excessive speeding, flying, total disregard that we’re in a highly populated borough, on their phones,” she said. “Two weeks ago, at 2:30 in the morning, a drunk driver, going way too fast, totaled my neighbors’ two cars, and pushed them up on the sidewalk. Their car landed right where the crossing guard stands” for nearby York Avenue Elementary School.

“People speed like that all the time. I don’t let my son play in the front yard much, because I worry about his safety,” she said.

Staff will work to record and publicize the presentation and study after the Monday night meeting, the chief added, then the debate can continue before council — and the chief predicted the contours of that debate based on survey data and feedback he heard after the October presentation.

“There was a strong minority of people who were totally against any traffic calming, so we’ll see what comes out of this. Overwhelmingly, it was in favor of traffic calming — and that’s what I’m going to advocate for — but there will be some bifurcation in the group,” he said.

The chief predicted another takeaway from the presentation.

“I think what you’re going to see, at a minimum, out of this is targeted enforcement in those really highly congested areas,” Trail said.

Dominic Frascella said he hoped the town could look for grants to fund some infrastructure such as wider curbs that would reduce crossing distance for pedestrians, and asked for specifics on the fatal crashes and numbers of injuries on local roads in recent years; Trail said that data would be included in the study.

Police manpower may also play a role in the conversation, the chief said: one dedicated traffic enforcement officer is currently out on long-term leave, and the department is down two positions overall, with one incoming officer expected to complete training by late summer who could help shift more manpower to traffic safety.

“We’re sufficiently staffed. The reality is, the job is different. When I started this job, you had a pen and a notepad, and that’s how you did your job. Right now, my officers have no less than ten systems they interact with every day: computers, databases they have to go into, their body-worn cameras, all this other stuff that has to be done,” Trail said.

Dominic Visturia said he recalled voicing safety concerns a year ago, and had seen several accidents since then, prompting him to start referring to “road violence” to try to draw attention to the problem.

“When something happens with a gun, it’s called gun violence. I think it’s about time we start calling it what it is: road violence toward pedestrians, and something needs to be done. How many times do we say this is a safe town? But we’re hosing blood off the sidewalks and streets. That’s not a safe town to me,'” he said.

All of those topics will be discussed during the May 12 meeting, then in council and committee meetings afterward, the chief said.

“I’d love to have five more cops, if anybody wants to fund them. But it’s not a function of that: it’s basically the marriage of good enforcement, good policy — including traffic calming measures, setbacks and stop signs. And then we go back a year from now, do another study to show that what we did improved things. And I have no doubt, this room will be here in full force to tell us if it doesn’t work out.”

Lansdale’s public meeting on the traffic study results will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 12 and full council next meets at 7 p.m. on May 21, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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