As she reached the halfway mark along a crosswalk on Park Springs Boulevard and Sublett Road, Sherre Barnes felt nervous as the crosswalk signal counted down from 20 seconds.
“If I’m lollygagging and just dragging to get across, I wouldn’t have had enough time,” Barnes said.
Her granddaughter, Liyah-Grace “Gracie” Holsey, died after being struck by two cars in the same intersection in December. The 10-year-old Mary Moore Elementary School student was walking home from school and made it halfway through the intersection when the crosswalk time ran out. Police and witnesses told Barnes that Gracie tried to run to the other side of the road as cars accelerated.
Months later, Barnes still wonders why the drivers did not see Gracie – and how fast the cars were going if the light had only just changed.
“I avoid driving over where she was hit, but as I’m driving, even in the dusk when it’s getting dark, I still see people on the road. How could you not see? What were you doing? How could you not see a person?” she said.
Gracie was one of 43 people killed in crashes and car accidents on Arlington roads and federal and state highways that run through town – the second-highest number of crashes in recent years. In 2021, Arlington recorded the highest number of traffic fatalities in the city’s history, with 53 deaths.
The uptick is not unique to Arlington. Nationwide, the total amount of fatal crashes rose by 10% in 2021 – a trend that experts have attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on traffic patterns.
Stephen Mattingly, a UT Arlington civil engineering professor, said higher instances of speeding and more pedestrians and cyclists on the road contributed to the rise, despite efforts by cities in recent years to minimize the number of serious injuries and deaths.
“The picture is not as rosy as it was looking previously in terms of us being able to move towards a Vision Zero scenario where we would eliminate all the deaths,” Mattingly said. “It’s pretty sobering and frustrating for us as a profession.”
Arlington officials across public safety and municipal departments have launched several efforts to target road safety.
As the number of traffic fatalities ticked upwards in early 2023, police officers increased traffic enforcement, community outreach and educational tools.
“I do believe the increased enforcement played a role in stymieing those numbers,” said Lt. Brian Jones, whose unit oversees the Safe Roads Initiative.
The city has also received multiple rounds of grant funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for road safety planning. Most far along in the process is Safe Streets Arlington, a plan that will outline priorities and best practices to improve road safety.
Ann Foss, transportation department planning and programming manager, said the plan aims to reduce the number of crashes that end in death or serious injury to less than 50 per year by 2050. Currently, that number sits near an average of 200, Foss said.
“If we continue on the path that we’ve seen over the past few years, we’re on target to reach 300 fatal and serious injury crashes by 2050. The purpose of this plan is to try to move that in the other direction,” Foss said.
Vehicle speed, city design play factor
Jones says he sees several factors contributing to Arlington’s statistics. Vehicle speed, as well as distracted driving and pedestrians not paying attention or crossing in unsafe areas top – but do not complete – the list.
“The number of people in our city has increased,” Jones said. “Pedestrian traffic has increased. You think about the entertainment district as well as vehicle traffic. So I think all those things play a factor and I think in some years, whether you want to say it’s luck, fortune or favor, it’s not on our side when some crashes happen.”
The city has had 20 fatal crashes so far this year — and Jones said the total number of fatalities is down overall. However, pedestrian and motorcyclist fatalities are trending up: Where 2023 saw 10 pedestrian deaths, Arlington has seen eight so far this year. The number of motorcyclists killed sits at four this year when six were recorded in 2023.
Police details this year are focused on reaching out to pedestrians who are taking risks and marketing traffic safety tips to motorcyclists, Jones said.
“We’re doing everything we can to enforce the traffic laws to make these roads safe. We want to go a year with no (fatalities) – that’s the ultimate goal,” he said.
City staff are also looking at long-term improvements to the city’s roads and sidewalks.
Historical development trends also play a factor, Foss said. The city mostly developed after the 1950s, when car-centric design became commonplace.
“I think we are now in a position where we do have a bit more density,” she said. “We have people who are interested in using various modes of transportation. We have more options for people besides driving a personal vehicle. One of our main challenges is making sure that we have safe infrastructure to support all of those different users and the modes that they want to pursue.”
The Safe Streets Arlington plan has resulted in two publicly available maps: one that maps out Arlington roadways with high numbers of serious injuries or deaths, the other a map of all crashes from 2018 to 2022, when the city recorded an average of 25 deaths per year.
Foss’ department is in the middle of public comment for the Safe Streets plan, which will have its third and final public input session Sept. 19. The plan is expected to go to city council for approval at the end of the year.
The city also received funding through the same program to update its ADA Transition Plan. The plan has not been updated since 1992. The document lines out city facilities, parks, sidewalks and roads in need of updates. Similarly, the city received funding to create a Sidewalk Master Plan, which will prioritize locations for sidewalk and ramp improvements around town.
“Both of these documents then give us guidelines for setting up bond elections, program identification, requesting future grant funding, things like that,” said Daniel Burnham, public works assistant director.
The city most recently received a federal grant to create a Safe Routes to School master plan for all public schools within the city. The funding will also cover test improvements near two elementary schools.
Foss said in the meantime, city officials are taking into consideration improvements and coordinate regularly with regional planners.
"There's a lot of safety-related work that we're doing just as we go about our normal transportation planning and implementing work," she said.
Intersections and crossing guards
Sherre Barnes is still processing Gracie’s death – and the less-friendly attitudes toward laws concerning pedestrians compared to those in California, where she previously lived.
The community rallied around Barnes after the crash. Someone helped students across the streets before the city hired a crossing guard. On a ceremonial final walk from school originally intended for family, around 60 people joined.
Some stayed in their cars to protect the crowd that took up one lane of traffic, Barnes recalled. Other motorists blew their horns and cursed out participants. Barnes said the person who helped students cross the street before and after school carried a rock to protect the students.
“I just didn’t understand how, you know, even if you don’t know what’s going on, you see us walking at dusk and you know something’s going on that you just don’t care and you’re willing to run people over just because you’re driving,” she said.
Between December and April, Arlington’s public works department updated pedestrian signals at the stop to display a countdown timer; hired a crossing guard; and repainted crosswalk stripes.
Barnes said she would like the city and Arlington ISD to put up a school zone sign and lights near the intersection or consider busing students past Sublett and Park Springs. She plans to reach out.
“I’m still trying to heal and be able to walk into the schools and deal with all this stuff, but it’s something that I want to do,” Barnes said.
Burnham said in an email that the city does not consider the Park Springs Boulevard and Sublett Road intersection a school zone because the area is over half a mile from the nearest school and a mile away from Mary Moore Elementary School.
“However, if there is enough school related pedestrian traffic in this area, which we will monitor for again this coming August, warranting a school zone or minor school crossing warnings, we would consider installing them,” he wrote.
Barnes has lived in several other states. She said that all of them had greater protections.
“Every state that I’ve lived in, anything over a mile, I think they would have the bus and any major intersection, they had crossing guards,” she said.
Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at [email protected]. You can follow Kailey on Twitter @KaileyBroussard.
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