Submitted by Temporary-Car7981 t3_11cgghn in newhaven
Last night, a female Yale student was struck by two vehicles at Elm & York Streets around 1:30am.
There had been the Senior Formal Dance earlier in the evening, but it's not yet known whether she had attended.
Serious injuries are not known if fatal at this time.
Yalies do cross dangerously and I hope that changes but driver education has to happen too. The answer to a street tangled with pedestrians is to slow way way down and chill out. Even with education, we’ll continue to get cars and pedestrians who are both oblivious. And I should say, that’s the answer until we implement more brilliant street design. Whalley Ave is a bad combo of cars and pedestrians too
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Impressive victim blaming here. You don’t know a single detail about what happened and you’re blaming the pedestrian who basically does have the right of way in nearly all circumstances. People run red lights and drive way too fast routinely in New Haven, endangering pretty much everyone. But sure, blame the girl who might have serious injuries.
You can absolutely guarantee that on any post regarding a car driver hitting a person in the road, whether it's on reddit, the new haven independent, on scene media, local news, etc; there will *always* be victim blaming without knowing a single detail. Drivers love to project their roadway dominance onto every situation because they're the same people that get annoyed when someone crossing the road delays them by 3.9 seconds in racing to the next red light.
And you can absolutely guarantee that someone will also spread the false belief that "pedestrians always have the right of way".
So it’s ok to run them over because they didn’t have the right of way?
no but who would be at fault
I’m NYC it is lol
thank you for proving my point
what do you mean by "false belief" here? the law in connecticut states that pedestrians have right-of-way in a crosswalk.
it doesn't mean that yale students don't behave irresponsibly, putting their own lives and the lives of others at risk, but it isn't a "false belief" to say that a pedestrian has the right-of-way in connecticut.
Go read the law regarding it and read the report about this accident. Oncoming traffic had the green light in a "controlled crossswalk" which means even though it's a crosswalk, the TRAFFIC has the right of way.
In an "uncontrolled crosswalk" the pedestrian STILL CANNOT JUST WALK INTO TRAFFIC! The law clearly states that they must make their intentions known to drivers thay they are trying to cross.
Now go read the law before you get yourself or someone else killed.
Based on the facts in this case it is exactly a “false belief” to say that the pedestrian had the right-of-way
Unless the car is driving up in the sidewalks over the curb I just don’t get how people would get hit by cars? Looking both ways you would see a car still coming at speed and probably not cross until they see you right
Yup. I was hit by a car on Orange last month when I had the right of way; the driver ran a red light and claimed they "didn't see me." Drivers in New Haven are insane.
Just to add to the chorus of “you are wrong”
You can review this OLR article, which discusses the instances where pedestrians do not have right of way (including outside of a crosswalk or when the intersection is controlled by a traffic signal)
You are correct that we don’t know the circumstances but Elm/York is controlled by a signal, so it is possible the student here was crossing against the signal.
I run outside a lot and my wife works at Yale New Haven. She frequently reminds me of how many people who had the right of way still end up in the ER. It is very unfortunate but you need to be aware of your surroundings and wary of bad drivers. This is not victim blaming it is just good advice that’ll maybe keep you alive when encountering bad drivers.
This way of thinking will get you run over
Very nice. New Haven is a neighborhood with lots of people, including children who do not always have great situational awareness. It has a 25mph speed limit and traffic lights. There would be fewer accidents if drivers stopped treating it like their personal raceway.
Sound nice, but you can’t rely on that being a reality ever in a city.
[citation needed]
Plenty of cities worldwide that do very well reducing their traffic violence. In particular, here in the US, Jersey City has made wonderful strides.
Even if you’re doing 25 mph, if someone steps in front of your car at the last second there isn’t much you can do. My friend was severely injured (multiple neck and vertibrae surgeries) after getting rear ended when he braked quickly in a similar situation. The pedestrian involved ran off and the truck that hit him drove away and he was stuck at the scene a crippled mess, his life forever changed.
That’s definitely true. Not much you can do in that case. Sounds like your friend got punished for being the only person actually paying attention and trying to be safe. I’m really sorry that happened.
Thanks. He’s a turtle when driving, the kind that barely cracks the speed limit, everyone speeds around and has never had a ticket or accident in almost 30 years before that. I fully agree with you that the large majority of drivers in this state are the opposite and reckless. He just had some terrible misfortune that day.
> the pedestrian who basically does have the right of way in nearly all circumstances.
You could not be any more wrong if you tried. And that train of thought is exactly what leads to pedestrians getting hit.
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Whatever dude. I never said it was "OK" so go ahead and knock that bullshit off right now.
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this law literally says that a crosswalk is considered a "place of safety" for pedestrians. pedestrians have the right-of-way while in the crosswalk, or at the curb before entering the crosswalk.
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Yep. I’m very careful driving in the area of Yale because of this. They DO NOT pay attention when crossing. Amazing no one taught them this.
Thats New Haven. While Yale is especially bad, people all over the city cross when and wherever they please.
I had words with 2 Yale students at this exact intersection during a snow storm a few years ago. Light is green, giving me right of way when 2 female students step off the curb into the cross-walk while I was already accelerating. I hit the brake immediately but a couple of inches of snow and actively falling snow in the early winter evening caused my car to slip down the street sideways and drift toward the curb.
When I opened my door,bright in front of one of the students in the middle of the road, I was not kind with my words. It was not the first, nor the last time an oblivious person, not even just a students, stepped into moving traffic in a dangerous scenario because they lacked situational awareness.
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I go to Scsu, and I can confirm that whenever I drive downtown or around yales campus, they do have no awareness. I took a shuttle from union station once and my driver nearly hit a student who walked right out in front of us. Sad that she’s been hit, and hopefully she’s okay, but I think a lot of the locals have sensed this would happen some time or another to some Yale students.
I worked off prospect on Munson street at higher one(that’s another story) from 2013-2019. My commute thru everyday consisted of almost hitting yalies that failed to look both ways lol. I was always mind blow at how they thought they dictated traffic lol. And for the crowd no I’m not trying to victim shade I’m simply replying to this comment lol.
pedestrians do have the right of way in most cases but none of those cases will alleviate the impact of a RAM 1500 at 40mph
Agreed. That’s near the Yale Architecture. I used to work there.
That area is has everything happen to it.
Shootings, muggings, sexual assault, etc.
Edit -
Ask the Yale Police if that are is safe. They will tell you no.
That area is safe.. let’s not act like this is the south Bronx 1972
Ask the Yale Police if that area is safe.
That’s quite possible one of the safest areas of New Haven. It is so far within the Yale umbrella that it might as well be a freshman courtyard. It’s also right next to the Study.
I lived two blocks down from there for nearly five years and never experienced anything like you’re describing.
Yeah, this area is quite safe.
The amount of sexual assault and attacks that happens there obviously have not reached you over 4 years. I worked near there for 4 years.
Yale as a whole is a mess anyway.
Given how hyperbolic your comment is (yea, nobody has been shot in front of the architecture school or in the broadway triangle…) I’m really not inclined to believe you absent a news article corroborating a single violent crime in that area.
Yale police send emails to active employees.
They also send text messages about ongoing “situations” and anything that comes up. So you need to stop.
Second, I am friends with several Yale police. I get details. I’ve been out of the loop for the last year, but it’s not hard to ask about what’s going on. Something always is.
Oh man - emails, situations and details!
Thank god you cleared that up for me. It’s a wonder I made it out alive.
Friends with the police 🤦🏻♂️.
Now I see what you’re doing lol.
lmaoo
Link?
Thanks for the link with the witness reports.
Freaking 1:30 in the morning and they tried to race across the crosswalk? Big shocker she got hit.
New haven pedestrians in general and especially Yale students seem to behave like they always have the right away. I'm shocked I don't see more of these articles coming out with how many close calls I see driving around campus daily. I have seen people literally dart across the street without even looking.
Not that it serves her right but hopefully someone getting hot will make other people more cautious at least for a bit.
Given that was are engaging in idle speculation, it’s possible she simply followed the other group who darted across the intersection. Sometimes pedestrians simply have lemming-level of thought and will step into an intersection if the person in front of them does.
Exactly. You may think you have the right of way or walk signal if you see other people going too. Especially at 1:30 am not everyone has their full wits about them. It’s basically mayhem downtown at that time.
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Someone posted the law here. If there’s a pedestrian signal and that signal has the stop sign while the drivers have a green light you DONT have the right of way. Read up and educate yourself b4 you type.
Edit: ofc they deleted their lengthy comment that was wrong and downvoted me haha. Fool
There's nothing on WTNH yet. I hope she recovers.
FWIW it was reported in On the Scene media that the apparent driver remained on scene.
I've lived in New Haven since 1959. Unaware pedestrians in this city have ever been reckless here---notoriously so---and it's tragic and so preventable. When I was younger, I thought at first it was only the students that were being oblivious, dwelling in their teenage-bubble mindset. But it isn't. I am here to tell you it is a citywide phenomenon---all classes of people, ages, and conditions do it, in every microneighborhood---it's actually a New Haven cultural thing.
I have found people in general just walk across the street without looking, simply by habit, and they really always have done so here, even at night. (It totally predates "walking along just staring at the phone," although that sure hasn't helped the problem any.) It's as if it doesn't even occur to many walkers to preserve their own lives.
I avoid driving on Whalley Avenue at night for this very reason. People habitually wearing dark clothes, lurching out in the dark in the middle of the street where they can't be seen. Terrifying how many near misses I've had or seen with this---and I'm careful! I drive as visually and situationally aware as I can. I take driving responsibility seriously---I'm wearing armor when I'm in a car! Pedestrians are not. I just wish they realized it...
My parents and grandparents taught me early on, holding my hand, to look both ways, and "to cross at the green [the corner of the street], not in between," which was also an old TV public service announcement in the 1960s, frequently aired. (I don't think parents teach this anymore. Why not? Not enough time in their day? I have no idea. It seems an awfully important teaching.)
Combine this rather routine and sad pedestrian obliviousness with our world-class bad drivers in this small city, and I'm constantly amazed we don't have more casualties here. The recent and increasing inclusion of sudden bikelanes that drivers don't yet know how to use makes safe driving ever more challenging. It will take a decade at least before our drivers (including me) actually understand the inside baseball of those. They are visually confusing, literally show up out of nowhere, and require a new type of anticipatory "traffic dance" to be learned on the fly.
Yes, we'll learn it, I'm learning it, but I worry about everybody out there.
The hit-and-run thing is another common stomach-turning business. This town is crazy, man. It takes all your strength.
I grew up in and around the city, and was very conscious of crossing the roads. For a brief time I moved out west to a town where they took pedestrian right-of-way very seriously. I was confused at first when I’d be at a curb and cars would stop, and even honk with impatience while I habitually waited for them to pass. It took a while to get used to that.
I only spent a few months there, but when I got back to New Haven I was so used to cars stopping that I nearly got hit a few times until I re-learned to be safe.
>My parents and grandparents taught me early on, holding my hand, to look both ways, and "to cross at the green [the corner of the street], not in between,"
Truer words have never been spoken. And your entire comment including the new bikes lanes is spot on. Regrettably, there aren't enough parents and grandparents doing the teaching for things like this.
Horrible news that’s all too common here. Hope she fully recovers.
From the news reports, it seems the pedestrian was clipped by one vehicle and then spun into/struck by a second vehicle. A terrible tragedy for all involved.
The comments below made me think of this poem from when I learned to sail:
This is a story of John O'Day
Who died maintaining his right of way
He was right, dead right, as he sailed along
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong.
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Breaking a minor law that was advocated for by industry shouldn't result in serious injury or death. Do Yalies have abysmal situational awareness? Yes. Should infrastructure also decrease the amount of times 2000lb moving objects have the potential to hit 120lb ones? Also yes.
Agreed so much. The infrastructure needs to discourage dangerous driving.
If the car wasn’t speeding and driven under intoxication, and doesn’t have time to react, it can be fully the pedestrian’s fault.
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stand on a corner anywhere on campus and watch Yale students.. observe them.. so many staring down their their phones as they cross busy intersections totally oblivious to their surroundings. Unfortunately this is not unique to Yale.. you see it in other cities as well.
pittiedaddy t1_ja3pw3y wrote
As someone that worked Yale security for a while, I can tell you that Yale students have ZERO awareness crossing the street. I'd nearly hit one daily because they just cross the street wherever. It sucks that it happened, but every crosswalk is a controlled one in that area.
Let me say it in a clear voice. You do not have the right of way just because you're a pedestrian and I don't believe I have to tell adults this, but look both ways before crossing.