Pedestrian struck, killed near unlighted crosswalk on Cedar Springs strip
JOHN WRIGHT | Senior Political Writer
wright@dallasvoice.com
A fatal hit-and-run accident on the Cedar Springs strip last week has led to renewed debate about what can be done to make the street safer for pedestrians.
Wayne Priest, 55, passed away Friday, Nov. 4, at Parkland hospital from injuries he sustained the night before when he was struck near an unlighted crosswalk at 3850 Cedar Springs Road, at the intersection of Reagan Street eastbound.
Priest, who lived in the 2800 block of Reagan Street, reportedly was on his way to pick up a prescription at Walgreens shortly after 9 p.m. He was crossing Cedar Springs a few feet outside the painted crosswalk, according to witnesses, when he was struck by a maroon four-door vehicle traveling southbound toward Oak Lawn Avenue. The driver of the vehicle didn’t stop and hasn’t been located by police.
“I think any time we have a tragedy like this, we have to investigate whether there are things the city can do to make the area safer for pedestrians,” Dallas City Councilwoman Angela Hunt said this week. “What I’ve asked the city to do is look into exactly what happened and to make recommendations about how we can move forward in making the area safer. I think the challenge we’ve had in the past is the city has been focused on moving cars, not people, and we’re trying to refocus that.”
Scott Whittall, president of the Cedar Springs Merchants Association, said in the wake of the incident, pedestrian safety was the main topic of discussion at the group’s monthly board meeting this week. The Merchants Association plans to invite both Hunt and Councilwoman Pauline Medrano to its next meeting to a take a firsthand look at crosswalks on the strip.
Whittall said the Merchants Association feels the city needs to either remove the crosswalk near which Priest was hit or add more signage. The crosswalk is marked with a sign on the side of the street in one direction but not the other. Whittall said the Merchants Association would like to see free-standing crosswalk signs in the middle of the street, like the ones where Knox Street crosses the Katy Trail a few miles away.
“It’s an entertainment district, and there are going to be a lot of people on the street,” Whittall said. “There needs to be proper signage on this crosswalk. Unfortunately, something like this has to happen before people pay attention again.”
Another crosswalk half a block away on Cedar Springs has flashing lights in the roadway and on both sides of the street which can be activated by pedestrians. However, it has been a maintenance headache for the city, which only recently repaired it after the flashing lights failed for at least the third time in the last few years.
“It’s very unfortunate that this is happening right when we finally got the other crosswalk fixed,” Whittall said, adding that the Merchants Association would also like to see the city follow through with plans to add surveillance cameras on Cedar Springs. “We probably would have been able to catch the driver if we’d had those cameras.”
If caught, the driver would now face third-degree felony charges for leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death, according to Detective D.T. Marchetti of the Dallas Police Department’s Vehicle Crimes Unit.
“The investigation is open and we are actively seeking the individual that struck him,” Marchetti said Tuesday. “I’m surprised there weren’t more witnesses to it. I’m surprised we didn’t get a tag number or a partial tag or a better description of the vehicle.”
According to a police report, the impact of the collision was so severe that it caused one of Priest’s shoes to fly off. Marchetti said a second vehicle struck Priest after he was lying in the roadway. The driver of the that vehicle remained at the scene.
Assuming the driver of the first vehicle that struck Priest wasn’t intoxicated, they wouldn’t have faced charges if they’d stopped, Marchetti said. That’s because there’s no indication the driver was speeding and Priest was outside the crosswalk, albeit by only a few feet. But Marchetti added that the No. 1 reason people leave accident scenes at night is because they’re intoxicated.
One of Priest’s roommates, Carrie Moon, said this week she’s hoping the driver will be found.
“It is one thing to make a horrible mistake and try to do what you can to help,” Moon said. “It is another thing to make a horrible mistake and just leave a person to die in the street. How this person can live with themselves is beyond me.”
Moon said she’d known Priest for about a year after they met at the Oak Lawn library. She and her boyfriend were looking for a room to rent, and Priest needed help with expenses.
Priest was from Louisiana but was estranged from family there and had moved to Dallas a few years ago. Moon said he’d been married twice and had a daughter.
Moon said Priest had struggled with his sexual orientation for most of his life but recently came out as gay after moving to Oak Lawn. He was a member of the Cathedral of Hope.
“He was in his mid-50s and it took moving to this area to for once in his life feel like he could be himself and not be judged, not even by the church, which was very important to him,” Moon said. “It was like he was starting over, and he had a lot of hope of finding a partner and a new life, and then this happened, which is just so sad.”
Moon said she was trying to coordinate funeral arrangements with Priest’s family in Louisiana. She said his wishes were to be cremated and buried near his son who committed suicide. The service likely will be held in New Orleans.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call the Vehicle Crimes Unit at 214-670-5817.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 11, 2011.
This is sad, and it does suck that something like this had to happen before people would pay attention again. I do have one comment/concern in regards to the safety — MORE signage would be a great addition!! If you notice, on the service road from Oaklawn to 35north – there are several signs warning you to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk – signage on Cedar Springs is little to none…and there have been several times, when I have seen people not yeild or stop to the pedstrians in the lighted crosswalk….so again…if anything….signage well ahead of the crosswalks…not right on top of them would be helpful if anything.
Why not build crosswalks that would be elevated above the street?
KLH: great idea. How do you propose paying for them? The city is running a budget deficit and doesn’t have two spare pennies to rub together.
Yep, the city can help pay for the park downtown over Wendel Rogers. (in the least populated area of the city!) They won’t do a damn thing for an entertainment district that spends Billions of dollars on clothes to cars, restaurants and over priced rent in that area. Who’s running this city anyway? The wrong money! Billionaires over the public’s’ 99%. Government just does not get it. Build a bridge, better lighting for blocks around and better signage! 2 huge speed humps with a lane in the middle for the damn fire trucks and ambulance. It’s not rocket science!
I would really like to see the street closed after dark to traffic. Poles in the street that go up and down during rush hours and closed off at night. Vendors with tables in the street!! Like Chicago or New Orleans or Santa Monica……Drunks or Red Necks have no business driving down the strip after dark to Look and stare. BEST OPTION CLOSE TO TRAFFICE AFTER DARK!
They should install lighted crosswalks (amber lights in the pavement that flash when a pedestrian pushes a button to cross the street) like we have here in California. The Bar Owners Association should pay for this. They have plenty of money to remodel their bars so they can spare some change to protect their customers.
I say someone hires the drag queen that stands on the side walk and sings, to be a crossing gaurd…I mean why not—it would be fun to have people dressed up, with hand held stop signs, and whistles to stop traffic so people can cross – and I’m not being a smartass, because this is serious. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you’d know they have one – that does this on her OWN time…and is quite famous for it… and some cities have officers posted in their downtowns for this reason too.
This cross walk needs to be removed from this location. Considering the heavy flow of traffic in the area, it is not a safe method of providing pedestrian traffic a crossing at this location.
It’s a very high pedestrian traffic area, and it will remain a high pedestrian traffic area: it’s a bar area, and there is plenty of distraction for drivers already. …Why not place those flashing red stop signs school buses already use for high volume pedestrian traffic? When someone wants to cross on foot, they have an instant red light all ways, instead of drivers trying to interpret that current yellow one (many drivers don’t know if it means stop or watch out for pedestrians; flashing red lights on a stop sign is much clearer). Place two on Cedar Springs. If it discourages through-traffic, that’s fine. People will use Cedar Springs less, and the backstreets more. Even more safe for bar-hopping and resident pedestrians. That area could REALLY use a parking garage, anyway.
Here we go again….”the community” is outraged that someone gets hit while jaywalking and “demands” the city do something about it. Cedar Springs is a busy street and I think most people who drive down it know to keep it slow in order to avoid all the drunks spilling out onto the streets from the bars. The lighted crosswalk is famous for being used as a “runway” by club goers and apparently feel entitled to step right out in front of oncoming traffic as they feel entitled to do so since “the community” will be outraged should one of them be hit. I’m so over this paper slanting the “news” toward making victims out of people not following laws, safety and basic common sense.
Never fails. A realist like me brings up the money issue, and suddenly here comes an avalanche of creative ideas from very sharp individuals like Rick, BDUB77 and Marty Mcc. You’re right, Marty, the city is spending money for a park over Woodall Rodgers, gambling on the fact that it will spur more residential development in the area. The city also built a convention center hotel, which pissed me off (and I told them so, not that it mattered any). And all this is happening when city services are being cut back to save money. (The once-a-week garbage pick up is bullsh*t.) I don’t know what you guys (or ladies) do for a living, but if you ever consider running for public office, be sure and let me know. If you folks were at Dallas City Hall, maybe we wouldn’t be having some of the problems we are now facing.
@ MARTY…as long as Love Feild in operating, don’t hold your breath on the street closing at night.
@RICK – we already have the ONLY lighted crosswalk in the city, and it apparently takes and act of God to have repairs made to it.
@Nathan – I’m not “outraged” because I actually agree with you, people tend to walk where they want, and when they want. I won’t cross there, period. I will go to the crosswalk at Throckmortin and Cedar Springs, because there is a stop light there…we want “equality” , but that doesn’t mean we’re outside the traffic laws and should feel outraged – I would HOPE that people (“the community”) would have the same things to say / feel if this had been a straight person out with friends, OR anyone, regardless of orientation, ANYWHERE in this city.
@JAMES – I’m not sure if you’re being serious, being a dick, or seriously being a dick. * Regardless of who is to blame, I’d like to see someone come up with something, doesn’t have to be the city. Lord knows we spend enough money in all the establishments along the strip – you’d think they’d be the first to step up, and try to do something to keep their patrons safe – granted, they don’t have too, because it is a “city street”. you can look at it as politics, or not politics until you’re blue in the face, but instead of riding the city council, etc. so hard about the upkeep of that damned lighted crosswalk, why don’t they take some initiative?? put forth their own money?? they’re the ones that pushed and pushed to get it installed, and no nothing but bitch because of the maintenence issues, try helping out for a while, install RED lights in it, with signage telling you to stop for the flashing red – same concept as a flashing red stop light – YOU STOP. if its not flashing, PROCEED. The worst part of this is that someone, whether gay or straight, lost their life, were they at fault?? the way the article reads they were – BUT…no one has bothered to mention that the asshole that hit him, failed to stop…nor have they located him…
@BDUB77: I’m dead serious. Your idea is one of the most creative, most cost-effective ones I have ever seen in answer to a growing problem. (In fact, I wish I had come up with it myself. Oh well.) I’m only a dick if someone else is being a dick for no good reason. The only fallacy to these arguments is that whenever something unfortunate occurs on or near the strip (such as the robbery in the Office Depot parking lot a few weeks ago), issues are raised and fingers are immediately pointed at the businesses on Cedar Springs, usually the nightclubs. According to the facts, the victim in this situation was actually going to the pharmacy, not a nightclub. He was not in the crosswalk and he also made the decision to cross a busy street at a point where there are no traffic control devices (Throckmorton and Oak Lawn would have been safer alternatives). Regardless, the whole incident, everything about it, is regrettable, and if anything is done to improve safety in the area, it will be up to the local business owners to initiate it. And it will be concerned citizens like you who step up and find the best way to do it.
Until safer measures are provided the best preventive action includes using the existing, controlled, designated and lighted crosswalks on Cedar Springs at Oak Lawn in front of the pharmacy or at Throckmorton two blocks away.
@James – agreed! and like I said in my eariler post – I didn’t mention the drag queen idea to be a smart ass – I was being serious – if that guy can stand on the sidewalk, and sing for change, why not give him an actual paycheck (and no, I have no clue of his/her situation) and if not him, then someone. Hell, if I didn’t work on most every weekend night, I’d almost volunteer to do it, but I’m sure I’d be one of the few, if any that would. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll come up with something, just sad it takes a death to really get people interested.