A car-pedestrian accident occurred on Sheldon Avenue in front of Moreland Hall on Sept. 6 at 6:02 p.m., resulting in a minor injury to a pedestrian.
A female pedestrian was struck within the crosswalk by the vehicle’s mirror after the female driver failed to yield the right of way for a pedestrian. University Police responded within a minute to the 911 call and found the female pedestrian down in the road, according to University Police Chief John Rossi.
The female pedestrian received treatment from EMS inside the ambulance for a minor injury and refused transport to Oswego Hospital.
Rossi says the driver of the vehicle told officers she was distracted after looking down at the clock in her car and did not see the pedestrian. She was then given a New York State traffic ticket for failure to yield the right of way to a pedestrian.
“Sheldon Avenue is traditionally the busy road on campus,” Rossi said. “And we’re finding there is a lot more traffic on that road due to the detour and construction on Route 104 going to the town of Oswego.”
Sheldon Avenue is also a city street. Its posted speed limit is 30 mph, not 20 like the rest of campus.
“The 30 mile an hour speed limit is, by law, the lowest speed you can go for an area speed limit,” said Tory DeCaire, the City of Oswego police chief. “So, if you want a linear speed limit for example, roads that are on campus, you would have to do a request to the traffic advisory for a speed reduction.”
A traffic study would then need to be conducted and approved for the change in speed to take effect. DeCaire said as of now there has not been a request submitted and does not think there is any accident data to support a speed change.
Mackin Complex Hall Director Chris Lewand was in class at the time of the accident, but was informed after he returned to the building by one of his resident assistants. Lewand sees police presence on the street, but would like to have the speed reduced.
“A lot of the time I see people really travel fast down here, and there are times when people probably whip through at 40 miles an hour,” Lewand said. “We are so used to, nowadays whatever the speed limit is, driving a little above that. So, I’d really like to see it brought down to 20 because right now, people are abusing it as is. So, hopefully bringing it down will at least get them to 25.”
Despite that section of Sheldon Avenue being the busiest on campus, Rossi has not seen a trend of accidents. About two years ago, there was an accident involving a pedestrian on a skateboard and a vehicle in the same location.
To combat this, University Police concentrates on that street as much as they can, Rossi said. Red crosswalks around campus were finished this summer to slow down drivers at crosswalks around the campus.
“That’s through our traffic safety program,” Rossi said. “We find that higher visibility crosswalks tend to slow people down.”
Rossi said he does not think Sheldon Avenue poses any extra difficulties to keep safe with the increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic, but he also said University Police has been concentrating on that street as much as they can.
“That’s basically a city street, so the city has purview over that,” Rossi said. “We did try to highlight the crosswalk with signs, and we find it does slow a lot of the traffic down. We are stepping up our enforcement also.”
Photo: Dori Gronich | The Oswegonian
