A stroll through the University’s campus yields not only stately oaks and broad magnolias, but a Quad where Facility Services trucks roam free and streets where vehicles zoom by and may or may not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
It’s almost impossible to walk anywhere on campus without encountering or crossing a street along the way. But students don’t even need to be near a road to be in danger of moving vehicles.
Last week, a student lounging in the Quad received a rude awakening when a Facility Services truck rolled over him.
Wednesday evening, Jinjuta Jirawatjunya, an international master’s student in food science, was struck by a car while crossing Nicholson Drive on her way to campus.
If those incidents aren’t enough to indicate a developing trend, let us not forget about last year’s slew of hit-and-runs, car-on-pedestrian collisions and resulting injuries.
An LSU cheerleader struck on River Road sustained a concussion, a hematoma and neck and vertebrae injuries. A Food Science Department staff member hit in a South Campus Drive crosswalk suffered a broken leg. A couple on East Boyd Drive was taken down in a hit-and-run and left in critical condition.
These are more than just a handful of freak accidents. A red flag should have been raised long ago.
What’s necessary for a call to action? What are campus officials and Baton Rouge city planners waiting for?
Accidents aren’t only happening in the middle of roads. Sidewalks, or a lack thereof, are a huge problem in Baton Rouge.
Neither East Boyd Drive, home to two popular student bars, nor Burbank Drive, littered with student apartment complexes and food joints, have pedestrian sidewalks. Students who elect to take the responsible route and not drive intoxicated may be in even greater danger on foot, due to the absence of sidewalks.
If a few sidewalks are too much to ask, would it be completely out of the question to request bike lanes, too?
Bicyclists are supposed to share the road with motorists, but Baton Rouge drivers often don’t know how to react to the two-wheeled, pedal-power apparatus. Neither do pedestrians.
Drivers speed past cyclists, inch behind them until they’re forced to move or do all they can to push them to the sidewalk. Once pushed to the sidewalk, bike-riders are greeted by annoyed and nervous walkers who glare and spitefully get in the way.
In January, 31-year-old cyclist Daniel Morris was struck and killed by a drunk driver on Perkins Road. Not long before Morris’s death, Jason Michael Stablier, 27, was also killed by a gasoline-guzzling machine on Perkins.
Cyclists are no match for 4,000-pound steel contraptions. They need a designated space, at the least, just as pedestrians need sidewalks and vehicles need lanes on the road.
Safer roads, sidewalks and bike lanes may help students shed the all-too-common, “I like LSU, but not Baton Rouge” sentiment.
The University needs more greenspace and routes to class where students can avoid campus’ streets clogged with Tiger Trails buses. A pedestrian campus is worth considering as well.
It’s time student safety is made a citywide priority. How many more University community members need to be hurt before a change is made? We don’t want to wait around much longer to find out.
