By: Tristan Hill
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) — Following a series of pedestrian accidents in campus crosswalks, some students at the U of A are concerned about the safety of getting to and from class.
That’s why Elizabeth Francis is using her civil engineering studies to come up with ways the university can make crosswalks safer.
Francis describes herself as “passionate about crosswalks,” after seeing so many dangerous situations while traveling on and around campus.
“Pedestrian safety is very important, especially on campus because it is such a foot-walking area,” Francis said.
That’s what inspired her to conduct her thesis research on campus crosswalks.
Francis says the study starts by identifying the intersections where most accidents happen. From there, she and her peers study the crosswalks at those intersections to determine what improvements can be made to make them safer.
“Some of that being better illumination for the crosswalks, others being, honestly, tree trimming, because Fayetteville is such a wooded area, sometimes tree growth overshadows crosswalk signs,” she said.
Despite the recent number of incidents, officials say that accidents in crosswalks aren’t new to campus.
Captain Gary Crain with University of Arkansas Police Department said there were 10 pedestrian accidents in 2015, four in 2016, six in 2017, five in 2018 and eight in 2019.
He also says the growing size of the student body poses the potential for more accidents.
“The increase in numbers, increase in cars, gives the opportunity for there to be more,” he said.
For those concerned about their own safety, Francis says the lessons that many students learn when they’re young still apply best.
“As we all learned in elementary school, look both ways before you cross the street,” Francis said.