New curbs installed at crosswalk where Knoxville student was hit in February

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Knoxville’s Vision Zero Project is aiming to eliminate traffic related fatalities by 2040. On Tuesday, the project announced one improvement to help keep pedestrians safer in a location where a West High School student was hit while in a crosswalk earlier this year.

On February 27, a 16-year-old student at West High was left with “serious” injuries when she was struck by an SUV in a crosswalk near the school . According to the Vision Zero project, that incident sparked the need for the newly installed infrastructure.

“The crosswalk was marked. The WALK pedestrian signal was active. She did everything right. However, she suffered injuries,” Project Zero’s post stated. “How can we prevent these kinds of incidents in the future?”

The city project went on to explain that left-turning vehicles are a danger to pedestrians, with drivers cutting across the intersection and taking turns diagonally at a high speed.

When the student was hit, the SUV that struck her was turning left from Tobler Lane onto Sutherland Avenue. Under Project Zero, the city has installed “curb hardening” and “curb bulb-out measures” in that intersection.

The new curbing forces drivers turning left to slow down and make a sharper turn into the lane they are turning into, rather than cutting through the intersection diagonally. The city added that the curbs also greatly increase the visibility of crossing pedestrians.

Although the intersection is in an area where drivers are expected to be more vigilant, the new curbs reinforce the reminder that drivers can never be too careful when driving in school zones. About a week after the crash, the teen’s mother told 6 News that the crash definitely “shines a light on driving safely and especially in a school zone where there’s children present.”

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