Seven pedestrians have been struck and killed by vehicles in Chicago this year, continuing a 2014 trend that saw an increase in pedestrian fatalities compared to 2013, city transportation officials said Thursday.
Thirty pedestrians were killed by vehicles while crossing city streets last year, up from 27 deaths in 2013, according to data presented at Mayor Emanuel's Pedestrian Advisory Council, a mix of transportation officials and local group leaders who push for increased pedestrian safety.
This year, seven fatalities have been logged in Chicago, as of Thursday afternoon. There were six pedestrian fatalities last month and one death so far this month, a 60-year-old man killed in a crash with an unmarked police car on a dark South Chicago street Wednesday morning, according to police information.
Nevertheless, transportation officials said Thursday they are encouraged that there's fewer pedestrians deaths than there were five and 10 years ago. There were 34 pedestrian fatalities in 2006 and 73 killings in 2002, according to data.
"We're seeing a long-term trend that is improvement," said Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld, who noted that the agency's "work is far from done ... Every death is one too many."
Transportation officials at the meeting didn't get a reason for the 2014 or the January spike in pedestrian fatalities. The six pedestrian deaths in January were up from two pedestrians deaths in January 2014 and one pedestrian death in January 2013.
The pedestrians killed last month were mostly "older individuals," officials said, though they didn't present an age breakdown or information about driver or pedestrian behavior at the time of the killings for the 2014 or 2015 deaths.
The killings this year have been spread across the city.
On Jan. 17, two men, ages 35 and 56, were killed as they were walking in the 4300 block of West North Avenue in the Humboldt Park community area on the West Side, police said. After hitting the men with his 2002 Buick, the driver tried to leave the scene but crashed into parked cars, officials said.
A 24-year-old man has been charged with two felony counts of aggravated DUI resulting in death after officials said they found his blood-alcohol level was nearly two times the legal limit.
On Jan. 16, a 58-year-old woman was killed crossing the street at about 6:25 a.m., in the 3600 block of West Addison Street near the CTA Addison Blue Line station in the Irving Park community area on the Northwest Side, police said. Charges were not immediately brought against the driver of the car.
The area by the Addison Blue Line stop has long been targeted for crosswalk improvements. The Active Transportation Alliance, a Chicago group dedicated to improving transit riding, walking and cycling, has been pushing for crosswalk changes near that station for years. The station is near the Kennedy Expressway and commuters coming to and leaving the station cross the street as cars are getting on and off the expressway.
It's unclear if pedestrian safety will be tackled in a proposed renovation of the Addison Blue Line stop, which is slated to begin this year. The CTA has proposed installing an elevator at the station to allow wheelchair riders to use that station.
A contractor has not yet been selected for the work so the project's full scope is not yet known, though after the project was announced more than a year ago, the Active Transportation Alliance felt more accessibility issues should be tackled at that station.
"We feel there are additional changes that will still be needed to improve comfort and accessibility for riders. Better access to the station for people walking and biking and a quieter, warmer station and platform are just a few," Active Transportation Alliance Transit Campaign Coordinator Brenna Conway told RedEye last year.
Infrastructure questions were also raised this week in the Wednesday death of a 60-year-old man who was hit by an unmarked police car at about 1:15 a.m., on the South Side. The streetlights on the block were not on at the time of the crash, police told the Tribune.
The Tribune found streetlights on the block had been out since at least Jan. 29, according to the city's 311 request log.
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