Girl sixth pedestrian killed on road since 2002
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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Sherry Varo is not the first pedestrian to die on a stretch of Springfield's Main Street that doubles as Oregon Highway 126.
Five pedestrians were killed and another 19 injured there between 2002 and 2007, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation.
"This is just an accident waiting to happen right here," said Shelly Woodruff, one of the citizens concerned about the stretch of Main Street in east Springfield where Varo, 17, died Tuesday night when she was hit by two cars while crossing the street.
Springfield police detective Robert Conrad said he sees pedestrians cross Main Street at dangerous spots all the time.
"Are they going to make it?" he asks. "And when's the next time I'm going get called out to do the next one?"
A meeting was already scheduled about this issue at next Monday's Springfield City Council. ODOT officials will be making a presentation about safety concerns on Main Street.
Joe Harwood with ODOT says the state needs the city to agree to help them consolidate access roads and driveways that face Main Street. Fewer access roads would create fewer places for people to cross the road.
If you look at Main Street today, it's lined with hundreds of businesses and behind them, residential houses.
The road itself is five lanes with very few marked crosswalks or traffic lights for pedestrian to use.
Why hasn't the road been changed?
"It's a very difficult issue," said Harwood with ODOT. "You have a highway corridor in a city where the speed limit is 45 miles per hour. You have, on either side of Main Street, you have just a huge and dense population of commercial businesses."
Harwood said solving the problem isn't as easy as just painting lines on pavement.
One reason why: all of the off-set intersections along this stretch of Main Street make a 'T' with Main Street instead of an 'X," which makes it hard to know where to put a crosswalk.
Another concern: access to existing businesses. ODOT installed a median after a fatal crash in 2006, but shortly afterwards business owners complained that cutting off traffic would hurt their bottom lines.
