Unless you spend lots of time looking through the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, you might not think it was interesting that information regarding Tommie Jackson’s death appeared in the database in less than one week.
Here’s why I noticed: there are fatal pedestrian crashes dating back to February that are not filed yet. I compared what was on my map (information gained from news reports and the database) to the database and found that 15 fatal pedestrian crashes that occurred before July 26 have not yet been included.
Cases not yet entered into the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, as of August 4, 2023:
- Feb 1 – New Haven
- Feb 15 – Bridgeport
- Feb 19 – Enfield
- Feb 26 – New Haven
- March 6 – Stonington
- March 9 – Hamden
- March 9 – Greenwich
- April 7 – Milford
- April 15 – Naugatuck
- April 22 – Hartford
- May 17 – Fairfield
- June 16 – Hartford
- June 23 – Fairfield
- July 1 – Stratford
- July 11 – New Britain
It can’t be simply explained away that some municipalities are more thorough or more leisurely about paperwork. Here’s the list of which ones have been added:
- Jan 17 – Killingly
- Jan 17 – Bridgeport
- Jan 18 – Shelton
- Jan 18 – East Hartford
- Jan 23 – New Haven
- Feb 1 – Meriden
- Feb 15 – Stratford
- March 4 – Westport
- March 8 – Waterbury
- March 31 – Hartford
- April 29 – West Haven
- April 30 – Middletown
- June 2 – Torrington
- July 16 – East Haven
- July 26 – Stamford
Additionally, there are a few crashes that I am pretty certain were in the database but are no longer showing up there.
Both of the crashes in Bridgeport occurred on state roads, so you can’t view this as a state vs. local police issue. At least not in every case.
I’m not going to offer any theories or speculation, just disappointment that there are cases from February-June 2023 that are missing from the database in early August, leaving for incompleteness in data. This is not a 2023 new problem, either. There is always a delay in getting all of this information made available to the public, and the outcome is a skewed understanding of the prevalence of traffic violence. And when people aren’t grasping the scale and causes of the issue, they are going to struggle with how to prevent future preventable roadway deaths.
By the end of July, drivers had killed 31 pedestrians and cyclists in Connecticut. That’s about one preventable death every week. In the last month alone, drivers killed five pedestrians.
The first preventable loss happened late on July 1, 2023 in Stratford, I think, close to the Bridgeport city line. News reports have been inconsistent about which town this happened in, no exact street address or intersection was described by them, and this is not yet in the database. The crash location has been described as in or near St. Michael’s Cemetery.
What is known is that the victim in this was Michelle Rodriguez, a young adult whose obituary describes her as having had a “joyful spirit.” She loved travel, nature, and animals. The photograph used in her obituary is of Michelle smiling at a bird. Even if you never met her or any of her family members, this will still break your heart.
So, we’re not just talking about data points here. Our losses are actual people who had personalities, hobbies and interests, and loved ones.
Punishment is not the same as justice, but it is worth noting that the driver was charged with — among the standards — failure to avoid striking a pedestrian. Police very rarely apply Connecticut’s Vulnerable User Law– so rarely that one wonders if police have been briefed about its existence.
This does not return Michelle to life.
It does convey a particular message: drivers have the responsibility to avoid hitting pedestrians.
In New Britain on July 11, 2023, a driver intentionally rammed two pedestrians in a parking lot. One died from his injuries, and the other required hospitalization. The driver turned himself in hours later. He had an ongoing dispute with Bruce Cote, 59, whom he killed. His beef with the other pedestrian was reportedly more recent. They were all arguing prior to the the vehicle becoming a deadly weapon.
Sometimes a gun is aimed with intention, and sometimes it fires due to sheer negligence. Cars are not so different, and we need to admit this to ourselves.
On July 16, 2023, a 19-year old male from Florida who has not been publicly identified was riding his bicycle on Route 80 in East Haven when a driver struck him from behind. This happened in a westbound lane of a four-lane stroad with no bicycle lanes. There are numerous curb cuts. There’s narrow sidewalk on only one side of the roadway, which a person from out-of-state riding later in the evening could have been completely unaware of. The speed limit is 35 MPH. The Connecticut Crash Data Repository states both that it was raining and that lighting was unknown in the area, which suggests that street lighting was insufficient. As far as I can tell, the cyclist’s preventable death was never reported in local news — his passing I learned entirely from the database. As such, there has been no news report explaining how a driver failed to avoid hitting a person on a bicycle directly in front of them. No mention if the vehicle’s headlights were functioning.
The next day, another driver killed another pedestrian on Route 44 (Albany Avenue) in Hartford. The victim was Marta Llanos who was either in or near the intersection with Garden Street where there’s a bus stop and numerous businesses, including restaurants, plus residences. There’s a gas station on one corner of the intersection.
Albany Avenue recently experienced a disappointing version of a road diet, in which speed of vehicles was not sufficiently exchanged for the safety of all its road users. Sharrows were inexplicably applied to the road; harrows are not a recommended design, especially not on higher speed roads or on stroads such as this one. A pedestrian still has to cross five lanes without the benefit of a median.
One month prior to this preventable loss, a driver struck and killed Jose Concepcion just a few blocks east — 0.3 miles — on Edwards Street by the intersection of Albany Avenue (Route 44). Crash report details have still not been posted indicating whether in that case the driver struck Jose on Route 44 or on Edwards Street, but that preventable death also happened either on or literally just around the corner from Route 44. A pedestrian was killed at this intersection of Edwards and Route 44 in 2015.
Another pedestrian was killed about 0.5 miles away at the intersection with Oakland Terrace in 2021, after the “road diet” was completed.
Marta was the third pedestrian killed at Garden and Route 44 since 2015 — two of those three preventable deaths happened after the “road diet” was finished.
That’s 6 preventable pedestrian fatalities within half a mile of the most recent, on or right around corner from Route 44, since 2015 — with four of the six happening after the “road diet.”
That does not include those who have been struck but survived. I will not list all of them, but on the evening of August 2, 2023, a driver struck a person near 1440 Albany Avenue. This was reported in one news outlet, but according to that, the pedestrian was treated at the scene and then brought to the hospital.
This is how that area appears:
This is the kind of design that might be acceptable at peak rush hour, but does absolutely nothing at other times of day.
And on July 26, 2023 in Stamford, Tommie Jackson, 69, whose wife is vice chair of the Stamford Police Commission, was run down while the pastor and urban planner was checking his mail. It was a clear, dry, sunny day and no explanation has been provided for why a police officer failed to avoid striking a pedestrian with a 2017 Ford Explorer.
There are no sidewalks anywhere on Wire Mill Road, nor are there marked crosswalks. The posted speed limit is 25 MPH.
News outlets have a template for reporting pedestrian deaths that they follow almost every time; for this, they broke from it, initially not sharing if the driver remained on the scene or was cooperating with police.
As always, thoughts and prayers were sent by those with some role in preventing this, but so far from them, nothing of substance like a discussion about why police are driving SUVs when sedans would do, when sedans worked just fine for decades.
In June, there was another high profile pedestrian death in Connecticut under similar circumstances: a driver struck the pedestrian and a mailbox on a road where there are no sidewalks or crosswalks. In that case, there were three children in the car; nothing has been made public to what they might have witnessed. A pedestrian was killed on that same street — Redding Road — just three years previously. There is a push to make improvements on both Redding Road and on Wire Mill Road where Tommie Jackson was needlessly killed. How talk translates into meaningful action, we have yet to see.
In Hartford, where Route 44/Albany Avenue continues to be a problem, the local street safety advocacy organization has been silent. Actual city residents, however, have recently begun organizing separately from this group.
Safe Streets Connecticut: July 2023
Unless you spend lots of time looking through the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, you might not think it was interesting that information regarding Tommie Jackson’s death appeared in the database in less than one week.
Here’s why I noticed: there are fatal pedestrian crashes dating back to February that are not filed yet. I compared what was on my map (information gained from news reports and the database) to the database and found that 15 fatal pedestrian crashes that occurred before July 26 have not yet been included.
Cases not yet entered into the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, as of August 4, 2023:
It can’t be simply explained away that some municipalities are more thorough or more leisurely about paperwork. Here’s the list of which ones have been added:
Additionally, there are a few crashes that I am pretty certain were in the database but are no longer showing up there.
Both of the crashes in Bridgeport occurred on state roads, so you can’t view this as a state vs. local police issue. At least not in every case.
I’m not going to offer any theories or speculation, just disappointment that there are cases from February-June 2023 that are missing from the database in early August, leaving for incompleteness in data. This is not a 2023 new problem, either. There is always a delay in getting all of this information made available to the public, and the outcome is a skewed understanding of the prevalence of traffic violence. And when people aren’t grasping the scale and causes of the issue, they are going to struggle with how to prevent future preventable roadway deaths.
By the end of July, drivers had killed 31 pedestrians and cyclists in Connecticut. That’s about one preventable death every week. In the last month alone, drivers killed five pedestrians.
The first preventable loss happened late on July 1, 2023 in Stratford, I think, close to the Bridgeport city line. News reports have been inconsistent about which town this happened in, no exact street address or intersection was described by them, and this is not yet in the database. The crash location has been described as in or near St. Michael’s Cemetery.
What is known is that the victim in this was Michelle Rodriguez, a young adult whose obituary describes her as having had a “joyful spirit.” She loved travel, nature, and animals. The photograph used in her obituary is of Michelle smiling at a bird. Even if you never met her or any of her family members, this will still break your heart.
So, we’re not just talking about data points here. Our losses are actual people who had personalities, hobbies and interests, and loved ones.
Punishment is not the same as justice, but it is worth noting that the driver was charged with — among the standards — failure to avoid striking a pedestrian. Police very rarely apply Connecticut’s Vulnerable User Law– so rarely that one wonders if police have been briefed about its existence.
This does not return Michelle to life.
It does convey a particular message: drivers have the responsibility to avoid hitting pedestrians.
In New Britain on July 11, 2023, a driver intentionally rammed two pedestrians in a parking lot. One died from his injuries, and the other required hospitalization. The driver turned himself in hours later. He had an ongoing dispute with Bruce Cote, 59, whom he killed. His beef with the other pedestrian was reportedly more recent. They were all arguing prior to the the vehicle becoming a deadly weapon.
Sometimes a gun is aimed with intention, and sometimes it fires due to sheer negligence. Cars are not so different, and we need to admit this to ourselves.
On July 16, 2023, a 19-year old male from Florida who has not been publicly identified was riding his bicycle on Route 80 in East Haven when a driver struck him from behind. This happened in a westbound lane of a four-lane stroad with no bicycle lanes. There are numerous curb cuts. There’s narrow sidewalk on only one side of the roadway, which a person from out-of-state riding later in the evening could have been completely unaware of. The speed limit is 35 MPH. The Connecticut Crash Data Repository states both that it was raining and that lighting was unknown in the area, which suggests that street lighting was insufficient. As far as I can tell, the cyclist’s preventable death was never reported in local news — his passing I learned entirely from the database. As such, there has been no news report explaining how a driver failed to avoid hitting a person on a bicycle directly in front of them. No mention if the vehicle’s headlights were functioning.
The next day, another driver killed another pedestrian on Route 44 (Albany Avenue) in Hartford. The victim was Marta Llanos who was either in or near the intersection with Garden Street where there’s a bus stop and numerous businesses, including restaurants, plus residences. There’s a gas station on one corner of the intersection.
Albany Avenue recently experienced a disappointing version of a road diet, in which speed of vehicles was not sufficiently exchanged for the safety of all its road users. Sharrows were inexplicably applied to the road; harrows are not a recommended design, especially not on higher speed roads or on stroads such as this one. A pedestrian still has to cross five lanes without the benefit of a median.
One month prior to this preventable loss, a driver struck and killed Jose Concepcion just a few blocks east — 0.3 miles — on Edwards Street by the intersection of Albany Avenue (Route 44). Crash report details have still not been posted indicating whether in that case the driver struck Jose on Route 44 or on Edwards Street, but that preventable death also happened either on or literally just around the corner from Route 44. A pedestrian was killed at this intersection of Edwards and Route 44 in 2015.
Another pedestrian was killed about 0.5 miles away at the intersection with Oakland Terrace in 2021, after the “road diet” was completed.
Marta was the third pedestrian killed at Garden and Route 44 since 2015 — two of those three preventable deaths happened after the “road diet” was finished.
That’s 6 preventable pedestrian fatalities within half a mile of the most recent, on or right around corner from Route 44, since 2015 — with four of the six happening after the “road diet.”
That does not include those who have been struck but survived. I will not list all of them, but on the evening of August 2, 2023, a driver struck a person near 1440 Albany Avenue. This was reported in one news outlet, but according to that, the pedestrian was treated at the scene and then brought to the hospital.
This is how that area appears:
This is the kind of design that might be acceptable at peak rush hour, but does absolutely nothing at other times of day.
And on July 26, 2023 in Stamford, Tommie Jackson, 69, whose wife is vice chair of the Stamford Police Commission, was run down while the pastor and urban planner was checking his mail. It was a clear, dry, sunny day and no explanation has been provided for why a police officer failed to avoid striking a pedestrian with a 2017 Ford Explorer.
There are no sidewalks anywhere on Wire Mill Road, nor are there marked crosswalks. The posted speed limit is 25 MPH.
News outlets have a template for reporting pedestrian deaths that they follow almost every time; for this, they broke from it, initially not sharing if the driver remained on the scene or was cooperating with police.
As always, thoughts and prayers were sent by those with some role in preventing this, but so far from them, nothing of substance like a discussion about why police are driving SUVs when sedans would do, when sedans worked just fine for decades.
In June, there was another high profile pedestrian death in Connecticut under similar circumstances: a driver struck the pedestrian and a mailbox on a road where there are no sidewalks or crosswalks. In that case, there were three children in the car; nothing has been made public to what they might have witnessed. A pedestrian was killed on that same street — Redding Road — just three years previously. There is a push to make improvements on both Redding Road and on Wire Mill Road where Tommie Jackson was needlessly killed. How talk translates into meaningful action, we have yet to see.
In Hartford, where Route 44/Albany Avenue continues to be a problem, the local street safety advocacy organization has been silent. Actual city residents, however, have recently begun organizing separately from this group.
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