A completely preventable tragedy

IU’s traffic laws killed one of my best friends.

Two weeks ago, I received some of the worst news that I have ever had to hear: One of my closest friends, Peter Duong, had been struck and killed by a car in a perfectly preventable incident on Fee Lane.

Had the University put some simple safety measures in place beforehand, he may still be alive today.

Unfortunately the University didn’t, but perhaps his death can serve as a catalyst for actions to be taken by IU to make campus safer for pedestrians. I never want anyone else to have to experience the pain that his family and friends have had to go through in the past weeks.

To achieve that goal, some serious changes need to be made on campus to make it safer for pedestrians and drivers.

IU officials should seriously consider the installation of the following safety measures throughout campus to prevent accidents, such as the one that killed Peter, from happening again:

(1) Raise the crosswalks.
Raised crosswalks are effectively just speed bumps doubling as crosswalks, forcing cars to slow down. They have been shown to decrease accidents an average of 45 percent when installed.

(2) Insert flashing pedestrian crossing signs.
Under a perverse Indiana state law, pedestrians only have the right of way when these lights are present. Placing them on campus would go a long way in decreasing the likelihood of another incident like the one that killed Peter.

(3) Separate the bus stops from the main part of the road.
Providing an extra lane for the bus to stop in (e.g. the one at the bus stop at Third and Jordan), allows traffic to continue to move smoothly while allowing pedestrians to see around the bus from the sidewalk.

(4) Insert pedestrian traffic lights.
Major crosswalks should have either traffic lights or stop signs, which would stop traffic every minute or so to allow for pedestrians to cross the road.

(5) Make more crosswalks.
IU simply needs to have more basic crosswalks – preferably with all of the above measures. The lacking number of them only encourages pedestrians to cross where there isn’t one, greatly increasing the likelihood of an accident.

There is a petition circulating online that advocates for more crosswalks; I strongly encourage everyone to sign it – it’s on Facebook under “Safety for Fee Lane Petition.”
I never want anyone else to have to witness their friend’s parents closing their child’s casket. Putting in place the measures that I have outlined here will go a long way in preventing that from happening again.

The most tragic part about Peter’s death is that it was completely preventable. Failure to install the safety features that I’ve outlined is a negligent and irresponsible act on IU’s part.

If measures such as these are put in place, hopefully no one else on IU’s campus will have to carry their 19-year- old friend’s casket into a church.