Tucson is a perilous place for pedestrians.
So far this year, 16 people have been struck and killed by cars in the city alone.
For most, their lives boiled down to statistics, briefly mentioned in news reports and then forgotten.
For Olivia Coleman and others who have been affected by the loss of a loved one, these “statistics” have faces, laughs, smiles and names. They had passions, friends and people who loved them.
Coleman’s son, Darren Porter, was 27 when he was struck and killed on Feb. 9, 2022, while jaywalking near Ft. Lowell and Stone Road.
Porter was killed on impact. The next time Coleman saw her son, he was in a casket.
Two years later, the grieving mother still has a difficult time getting behind the wheel of her car without thinking about her son’s final moments. She has a hard time seeing pedestrians cross roads illegally and is even more terrified to hit someone herself, she said. Her goal is to help people realize how serious the problem is, and how lasting its effects really are.
People are also reading…
“Just because the person is dead, doesn’t mean it’s done and over with,” Coleman said. “Family members are haunted by their loved one’s absence and the city needs to do something about it.”
At this point in time last year, at least 11 people died in pedestrian crashes across the region. There’s no single cause for Tucson’s high rate of deadly pedestrian crashes, but there are several common factors experts cite things like Tucson’s development as a car-centric city, drug use and ignoring basic traffic rules.
Pedestrian safety plan
In 2014, Tucson put together a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) to help reduce the number of fatal pedestrian collisions and injuries occurring throughout the city by putting pedestrians at the forefront of new policy, investments and design.
In the 69-page document, experts revealed that the top risk factors for pedestrian crashes include street design, land-use, lighting, speed, and behaviors. These factors were whittled down by analyzing five years of data specific to city-walkers.
When the PSAP was written, it noted that between 2014-18, 66% of all pedestrian crashes and 68% of fatal and incapacitating injury pedestrian crashes, occurred on just 4% of Tucson streets. In order to see that statistic change, counter measures must be taken, and traffic engineer for the Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility, Blake Olofson is the guy whose job it is to make that happen.
Olofson has been working with the city since 2018. Although he’s an engineer, his passion is really about saving lives.
Using voter-approved Proposition 411 money and other funds, Olofson and his colleagues can move forward with making Tucson streets safer for pedestrians.
“Now that we have the money, we need to walk the walk, not kick the can down the road,” Olofson said. “It’s an exciting time in Tucson,” but it’s going to take education and participation on everybody’s part to save lives.
Despite the city’s ongoing efforts, many Tucsonans continue to voice concerns about the number of people being fatally struck by cars. It will take public safety workers, drivers and pedestrians across the region working together to help save lives, says TPD Deputy Frank Magos.
Magos noted that dark clothing, dark streets, high speeds, impairment, distractions and the engineering of local roads can be rectified to provide more safety for pedestrians as well as help drivers see pedestrians jaywalking or using crosswalks in dark conditions.
Olofson said his personal goal is to make something as simple as crossing a street more tangible for all residents.
Currently, there are 140 HAWK lights, the flashing crosswalks placed around the city. Olofson wants to see the number of such crosswalks rise to 200. In doing so, it will allow pedestrians to make better choices when it comes to traversing Tucson streets, he said.
Following her son’s death, a HAWK light was erected just outside Coleman’s apartment. She said she sees pedestrians using it all of the time. It’s a small gesture that could easily save a life, she said.
“Those lights work,” Coleman said with conviction. “They really do. I see people stop all the time. It should be mandatory all over the city.”
According to Olofson, there is a 93% yield rate at the HAWK crossings. Without them, pedestrian lives would have surely been lost, he said.
Still, getting pedestrians to use them is more difficult. Last month a 48-year-old woman was trying to run across West Irvington Road, near South Sixth Avenue, at night was struck and killed by pickup truck. She died close to a HAWK crosswalk, police say. Similarly, a 55-year-old man was struck and killed by a pickup truck Wednesday night while crossing South Alvernon Way near East 25th Street. Police said he was about 150 feet from a lighted crosswalk.
“You never want to victim-blame, because people make mistakes,” Olofson said, “But last year, about 90% (of pedestrians killed) were at fault.”
He said pedestrians are crossing mid-block, against signals, or on high-speed roadways just to cross the street, and sometimes he understands why.
“Some of these signals are a mile apart and you have to walk that far just to cross the street. It’s not practical,” he said.
Drugs and darkness
Magos said while there are things the city can continue to do to reduce the number of pedestrian deaths, the number of victims killed while under the influence of drugs/alcohol is one problem that’s harder to address. Toxicology results can take weeks to come back, and even then, they aren’t surefire. Some drivers will flee the scene, making it difficult to know if they were intoxicated when the crash occurred.
Proof of these difficult-to-capture numbers can be seen in the disparity of statistics floating around: 11% of pedestrian fatalities involve an intoxicated person. The statistic has also been cited as 40%, and even as high as 75% — a rate that Olofson said wouldn’t be a surprise.
The most accurate numbers regarding drug use and homelessness among fatal pedestrian crashes come from the Pima County Medical Examiners.
The office began detailed tracking of Pima County pedestrian deaths in 2022 and has included toxicology screening results as they relate to these deaths. These perimortem toxicology testings look for methamphetamine, fentanyl, ethanol levels above .08, and other significant drugs (not including THC) in a pedestrian’s system.
In 2023, of 37 toxicology screening reports taken on fatal pedestrian victims, 65%, or 24 of the pedestrians, had meth, ethanol fentanyl or other drugs in their system, the medical examiner’s data show.
As a former Trauma ICU nurse at Banner University Medical Center, Audrey Corkill, put herself on the frontlines of this growing dilemma and has conjured ways to try and prevent these deaths over the years.
“The majority of our patients, and I mean overwhelming majority, were pedestrian/ bicycle versus vehicle (crashes),” she said. For Corkill, it was impossible to not want to help solve the problem.
Corkill suggested that the hospital give headlamps to those being discharged so they can be seen crossing dark streets and avoid another strike.
“Arizona wants to keep light pollution down and I respect that, but it makes it very difficult for people to see at night,” she said.
Corkill noted that many incoming patients were reported or found struck by vehicles in areas where the homeless population is high, and the streets are dark, although that isn’t always the case.
The majority of pedestrians killed in 2023 were not homeless, according to data compiled by the county medical examiner’s office. It examined 48 deaths and found that 58% of pedestrians who died in a crash had a home. About 38% were unhoused, and the housing situation was not known for about 4% of the cases, the office found.
Another pivotal factor experts said is impacting pedestrian fatalities is lighting — or insufficient lighting — on the roadways.
Tucson’s proposed Pedestrian Safety Action Plan focuses on providing adequate street lighting for pedestrians. It also aims to use data to pinpoint high concentration areas of injuries and limited lighting which they plan to use to prioritize lighting enhancements with hopes of curbing night time crashes. This includes establishing a unified policy that ensures sufficient lighting at crosswalks, and includes corridor-wide placement guidelines.
The city was also encouraged to establish a minimum level of “Dark Sky” compliant street lighting for collector or arterial streets that prioritize bicycle and pedestrian safety.
The new policy would also aim to use the high injury network to identify roadways with a high concentration of injuries and limited lighting to prioritize these roadways for lighting enhancements.
Anywhere, anytime, anyone
Both driver and pedestrian could be following the rules of the road, and a fatal crash can still occur, leaving families, witnesses and community members reeling.
That’s what happened in the case of 86-year-old Gladys “Ann” Blackmarr. She was walking home from the grocery store near East Speedway and North Wilmot Road in the afternoon when she was struck and killed in the crosswalk.
Tucson Police say fatal crashes are occurring at all hours. But they are more likely first thing in the morning, about 5 p.m. when people are leaving work, and between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. when the bars close.
It’s been nearly four years since Savannah Pendergrass, 38, of Tucson, held the hand of Blackmarr, a dying stranger who was bleeding in the road after being struck in the crosswalk by a Ford pickup truck.
Blackmarr made it to the hospital, but never made it home.
It’s a sight Pendergrass cannot unsee.
“It was awful,” Pendergrass says. “I cried for days ... It was very traumatic for me mentally as I already have a PTSD diagnosis.”
Pendergrass said Blackmarr’s daughter recently found her on social media to ask about her mother’s final moments alive.
“I told her as honestly and as easily as I could,” she recalled. “Of course, remembering it all over again after speaking with her daughter was painful.
“A daughter lost her mother. I think my trauma, although real, is less.”
Traffic enforcement boost
One thing pedestrians can’t control is the speed of an oncoming vehicle.
Even modest increases in a driver’s speed can severely impact the likelihood of a pedestrian’s survival, according to statistics presented in Tucson’s Pedestrian Safety Act.
Research shows that increasing vehicle speeds from 20 mph to 40 mph lowers a pedestrian’s chance of survival from 80% to 10%.
Statistics also show that slower speeds also increase a driver’s field of vision and can allow more time to react to unexpected situations. In the TPSA, it is noted that 80% of pedestrian deaths and serious injuries occur on streets with speed limits of 35 mph and above.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has created a special team to target aggressive drivers on the roadways.
Uniformed officers are on the look-out for speeding, aggressive driving, traffic violations and other driver behaviors that put residents at risk.
Drivers can expect to see an increase in traffic stops through the area to include speeding, school zone, DUI and racing violations.
With the goal of lowering the rate of all traffic collisions, including pedestrian fatalities across the region, Nanos’ team will be tasked with making themselves seen and heard.
“Traffic enforcement is a tried-and-true method in educating bad drivers,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release promoting the new traffic safety initiative. “Used in tandem with data-driven intelligence, the Special Enforcement Team will make a positive difference on our roadways.”
Nanos hopes his plan will be a small part of a change for the better.
His goal is to require deputies take part in a “strategic deployment” mission along the city’s high-injury road networks. This would include spending 10-12 minutes at each high-injury location daily, as well as provide plenty of warnings to drivers, bicyclists or pedestrians.
At shift’s end, sergeants and deputies will identify where additional crosswalks, lights and other factors seem to play a part in the location’s designation as a high-injury network. That data is then sent to the Department of Transportation and Mobility for evaluation.
It’s often easy to point fingers and blame a single person for the devastation left behind after a pedestrian fatality.
Coleman, the grieving mom, acknowledges that her son was in error by jaywalking the evening he was killed.
Where was he walking? She doesn’t know. Did he have any last words? She doesn’t know.
In fact, Coleman said she doesn’t even know the name of the driver name who struck and killed her first-born son.
“Getting in a car to drive is emotional for me,” Coleman said through tears. “It’s hard for me to live life like this, but I have no choice. What am I going to do? Never get in a car again? I can’t live inside this house forever. It’s unavoidable.”
What is avoidable, she said, is not making someone walk a half-mile to a stoplight in order to cross the road safely. She believes her son was trying to avoid having to do this when he was struck and killed.
“When is enough going to be enough,” Coleman said, her emotions rising. “When are we going to have a wake-up call? What’s it going to take?”