A 72-year-old pedestrian was struck in the crosswalk on Cedar Springs Road at Knight Street at about 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 22. He was taken to Parkland Hospital and released on Christmas Day.
Lyle Bainbridge said he was crossing the street in the crosswalk and vehicles had stopped in both directions, when a motorist sped around the stopped vehicles and hit him.
He said he was thrown and his head landed in the gutter just inches from the car that hit him.
The driver of that vehicle stopped and told Bainbridge that he was delivering pizzas and was on his cell phone talking to the owner of his store. Bainbridge said the man was apologetic and in tears when he got out of his car.
Bainbridge has a broken collar bone. Doctors detected heart defibrillation problems that may have been a result of the accident. He said he had not been diagnosed previously with heart problems.
Bainbridge, who is from California, is in Dallas for the holidays house-sitting for a friend.
This is the fourth time a pedestrian has been hit on Cedar Springs Road in two months and the third time near this same location.
On Nov. 25, Edward Lee King, 61, was struck by a driver and killed crossing Cedar Springs Knight Street. Wayne Priest, 55, was killed by a hit-and-run driver near Cedar Springs and Reagan Street on Nov. 3.
A 10-year-old girl was hit on Dec. 10 near Knight Street. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
After the earlier accidents, Councilwoman Angela Hunt asked city staff to looks at ways to make the area safer for pedestrians.
Bainbridge said he wanted to call awareness to his accident to push the city to take action. He said that there should be stop signs at the intersection if not traffic lights.
“It takes something drastic happening before they’ll do something,” he said.
When he learned about the previous accidents at the intersection, he said he wondered how many more people will be hit before the city makes safety in this area a priority.
It was unclear whether the driver who hit Bainbridge received a citation. Sr. Cpl. Melinda Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Police Department, said an accident report was not yet available.
That is sad. I think people zip through there just not realizing what a danger it is to pedestrians. Kudos for keeping up with this..maybe the city will take note!
Ugggh! Just what we need is another traffic light or stop sign in that area. I think a lighting the cross walk will be better (if that). I am a runner, and I can tell all you pedestrians out there. People are not watching for you: They are on their phones, flipping through the radio, and talking with friends. You need to watch for them. I am a driver, and I can tell you there are many dumb ass pedestrians just crossing the street whenever too.
I think the only solution is to have a neighborhood awareness campaign.
I fought and fought for months with the City to fix this before it became a bigger issue. The dynamics of the street have changed with the addition of ilume (both residential and retail). The City continually told me that there was no budget for anything extra and there was not enough traffic to do more lights.
Something needs to change with as bad as this is getting. Not particulary in any of these cases listed because they were in crosswalks each, but I have to agree somewhat with David…people do not watch, they expect you to just stop!! I’m always on the lookout when I drive, not just there because it’s home, but everywhere…even tonight, on oaklawn – a couple walked right out in front of me to cross the street to get to the restaurant between a t & t and the design store…there is no cross walk there, and they didn’t get in a hurry, they stopped traffic to walk across the street – cross walks are there for a reason,
While there is always plenty of room for differences of opinion, as it were, all the areas around the Cedar Springs Merchants Association have changed personalities, and the city and the times have not kept up. There are frequently activities going on in that area “the street,” which is actually encouraged. Might I courteously remind all drivers that pedestrians have the right of way. It doesn’t matter if they “step out in front of you” or not, the driver must yield to the pedestrian. In this case, the gentleman is from the State of California, in which drivers generally tend to respect and yield to pedestrians, since there are so many more walkers, hikers, bikers, and runners. In CA, if a driver blows through a crosswalk without yielding to pedestrians, they will – rightfully – confront the driver, and make you wish you had stopped. If you almost run over a big daddy-grizzly bear in San Francisco, you might end up on the losing end of a smackdown.
It doesn’t matter if they “step out in front of you” or not, the driver must yield to the pedestrian – Beg to differ,….it does matter.