Wisconsin College Working with County after Pedestrian Killed

The Medical College of Wisconsin recently announced they are working with Milwaukee County and Milwaukee Regional Medical Center to ensure the thousands of people walking around the campus stay safe.

The announcement was made following a tragic incident that occurred April 11. That’s when Rattanawadee Kotewong, 32, was struck by a car and killed.

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The Medical College of Wisconsin told WTMJ reporters that while they work with those groups, they are acting right now to make people feel safer. The group is focused on contracting with crossing guards and installing visual enhancements.

“County supervisor, James Luigi Schmitt, who is responsible for much of Wauwatosa, said in the news broadcast that he’s not sure what else can be done. But, he said the County will do whatever is necessary to improve safety.

Students TODAY’S TMJ4 spoke with said they feel pretty safe. One student commented on the number of stop signs already present near the school.

“I feel like they’re doing as much of a good job as they can,” she said.

But, not everyone feels as secure. One runner told the news station he feels drivers could respect pedestrians more.

“When I go to other cities, it seems that people are more cognizant of pedestrian crossings and they’ll stop for them and around here they don’t,” he said in the news broadcast.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reports that in Wisconsin, in 2013, one pedestrian was injured or killed every 6.9 hours. There were 1,273 crashes involved pedestrians in Wisconsin in 2013. Of these crashes, 35 pedestrians were killed and 1,231 pedestrians were injured. Few pedestrian crashes result in property damage only; the pedestrian is almost always injured.

Over the years, improvements to pedestrian safety have been made in areas such as engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency response, according to the D.O.T.

The number of pedestrians killed has been steadily declining for the past 24 years. In fact, the number of injuries has decreased by 41 percent since 1990.

Street or road crossings are, by far, the most common types of pedestrian crashes. Any street crossing can put a pedestrian in the path of a motor vehicle driver who may not be paying attention or may not have the time to avoid a pedestrian who suddenly steps into the path of a vehicle.