Four fatalities have come at a pace of one each year since 2007 — Audrey Williams, Jonathan Gibson, Larry Downs and Yuezhuo Zheng.
On Dec. 16, 2007, Audrey Williams, 57, was killed while she was walking home from the Moose Lodge.
“I know Audrey was drinking,” Williams’ older sister, Jackie Spears, said. “That’s why she was walking. She wouldn’t drive her car and drink.”
Williams was thrown several feet when she was struck from behind by a Chevrolet truck drive by Christopher Miller, who was 23 at the time. Miller fled the scene.
He was charged with failure to stop after an accident and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which Spears doesn’t think was enough.
Now Williams’ family is gathering signatures for petitions in her memory to bring awareness for stiffer penalties for hit-and-runs.
The last time the family got together before the incident, Spears recalled that her baby sister was making plans for the summer.
“Then there was no summer,” Spears said.
Jonathan Gibson was 27 when he was fatally struck by a car on June 16, 2008, on Ohio 235 near Palmer Road.
“He was my baby,” said Gibson’s mother, Patsy Adair. “He’d do anything for you, just loved everybody.”
Gibson was hit by a car driven by an 18-year-old woman; no charges were filed.
“I pass by (the site) every day,” Adair said. “I try to keep it fixed up.”
Adair thinks there should be a traffic light where her son was killed, and a crosswalk.
She also thinks the area should be better lit.
“So (drivers) can see where people are walking,” she said.
On Nov. 29, 2009, Larry Downs, 57, was killed at 235 and Styer Road.
Yuezhuo Zheng, 46, was fatally struck Jan. 30, 2010 on 235 near Hocker Road.
An abbreviated Ohio Department of Transportation study on Ohio 235 in Park Layne will begin March 1, according to officials.
“We’re hoping to get a quick one-month turnaround out of it,” said Scott Schmid, interim director of the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee. “We want to do this quickly and get a good result out of it.”
Ohio 235 at Gerlaugh Road and at U.S. 40 have been marked the most dangerous rural intersections in the county and ODOT will be studying if there are any short-term, low-cost solutions, Schmid added.
“Clearly, there’s a need,” he said.
Traffic accidents that kill pedestrians are relatively rare. In 2008 the Ohio Highway Patrol reported 98 pedestrians were killed in vehicle accidents statewide. In 2007 the number was 107.
The fact that there has been a fatal pedestrian accident every year in this stretch of road has come at a time when the overall number of fatal vehicle accidents in Clark County has gone down, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
In 2007 and 2008 there were 22 and 25 fatal accidents in Clark County, respectively. In 2009 there were 10.
Among the issues is that the stretch of Ohio 235 through Park Layne has become a shopping area designed primarily for cars and doesn’t have sidewalks on all the streets.
“It can make it difficult for pedestrians to get back and forth,” Schmid added.
Between 2007 and 2010, four pedestrian fatalities have occurred in stretch of Ohio 235 in Park Layne. All four accidents took place after dark either near or on Ohio 235.
Williams, 57, was killed Dec. 16, 2007, while walking to her home from the Moose Lodge, 12325 Gerlaugh Road. She was walking because she had been drinking and didn’t want to drive, Williams’ relatives said.
Gibson, 27, was killed June 16, 2008, while on the way home from his sister’s house. Gibson was struck by a 2005 Saturn SUV driven by 18-year-old Melanie Plake, according to reports. Police reports noted Gibson may have been drinking.
Downs, 57, was killed Nov. 29, 2009. He reportedly walked into the path of David Saylor’s red 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan and was struck. Downs was also suspected to have been drinking, according to Ohio Highway Patrol reports.
Zheng, 46, was killed Jan. 30 of this year while she was on her way home from work. She had been dressed in all black, according to Ohio Highway Patrol reports.
Nevahn Brady, 18, of Huber Heights, was headed south on Ohio 235 in a 2004 Suzuki Forenza when her vehicle struck Zheng. Brady was released at the scene and has not been charged in the accident.
Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said his office is aware of the high number of accidents in the area and has used grant money for additional patrols.
Kelly said because of the number of businesses in the area and an apartment complex nearby, there is more pedestrian traffic in the area.
The traffic stops his deputies make are deterrents to crime and impaired drivers, Kelly said.
Deputies are on the look out for “impaired drivers and impaired walkers,” Kelly said. “We want walkers as well as drivers to be safe.”
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