By Blake Haas
NORMAL – Less than a week after an Illinois State University graduate student died in a car accident near ISU’s campus, a Normal Town Council Member said the Town of Normal is looking into the intersection and ways to make it safer.
According to Normal Town Council Member Stan Nord, the intersection on West College Avenue, near Kingsley Junior High School and Redbird Arena, has been dangerous for years.
“That’s been an issue for a long time. I went to school at the old Normal Community when it was there, and that intersection has been a challenge since way back then. I got rear-ended there when I was in high school.
And I drive down that road all the time, you know, I think the college students are a little cavalier about stepping out into the road without looking both ways. There’s no traffic control to stop vehicles, so there are quite a few vehicles. It’s on a turn, so I don’t know the solution, but it needs to be looked at and addressed.”
Last week, Daniell Fairchild, 23, of Normal, was hit at that intersection and later pronounced dead at Carle BroMenn Medical Center.
Authorities say a 76-year old woman driving the car failed to stop and yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crosswalk.
According to Councilmember Nord, the intersection near Kingsley Junior High School is not the only dangerous pedestrian crosswalk area in the twin cities.
“In Normal, where Constitution Trail crosses the street, the Town has put signs out that tell cars that you need to stop for pedestrians on the road. Well, these are signs that people are just not familiar with. I have not seen them used anywhere else in the country. But here, we have them, and now when you are driving through these areas, you will see cars slam on their breaks because somebody is coming up to that intersection and they think they need to stop,” Nord told WJBC’s, Scott Miller.
And people on the bike think they have the right away, and there’s no stop sign there. You know, I think we’re also putting a false sense of security out there in the public saying, ‘hey, it’s incumbent on the drivers to make sure people don’t step out in front of them when there is no stop sign, no traffic control device or anything. And that’s unfortunate.”
According to Nord, the Town has failed to address a variety of pedestrian crosswalks like the Constitution Trail.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
