Sayre Borough: Improving pedestrian safety

From The Morning Times:

A couple more incidents involving pedestrians being hit by motorists in the area around the Guthrie campus is resulting in forthcoming changes to some speed limits in that portion of the borough as well as the elimination of some parking spaces.
At Monday’s meeting of the borough’s administration committee, the committee agreed to recommend that the municipality amend its traffic ordinance to reflect these changes.

Specifically these changes focus on lowering the speed limit on South Wilbur Avenue from Hospital Place to Hayden Street and Hayden Street from South Wilbur Avenue to 100 feet west of Brock Street from 25 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour.  In addition, the borough would also eliminate the parking spaces on the west end of Howard Elmer Park on South Wilbur Avenue from West Packer Avenue to Park Place.

Council President Henry Farley noted that another Guthrie employee got struck by a motorist while crossing Wilbur Avenue, and a child riding a bicycle was struck by a motorist on Hayden Street.  “They (Guthrie officials) are asking to ‘please, slow the traffic down,’” said Farley. “Guthrie has the flashing lights (on Wilbur Avenue). They just need a speed limit sign to go with them.”  “The way it works with our speed control is the speed limit is 25, but the officer has to give the vehicle until they get to 35 before he can write the ticket,” said Borough Manager David Jarrett.

The committee will recommend that the council implement these speed limit reductions on a 90-day trial basis at the board’s Thursday meeting.  “It is critical,” said Farley. “It is not safe there, and we need to do as much as we can to calm the traffic down.”  The other proposed amendment to the traffic ordinance is aimed at improving student safety on West Lockhart Street in front of Sayre High School.

That amendment would eliminate the north side of West Lockhart Street from North Hopkins Street to South Brock Street from the residential parking permit area.  That area was originally zoned as “no parking during school hours” before it was included within the residential parking permit initiative.  “Concerns were raised earlier in the school year where you had people dropping (students) going east and you had people dropping off going west, and you’ve got kids running in between cars,” said Jarrett. “I met with the school superintendent and high school principal, and we talked over a couple of ideas.”

One of the ideas was to eliminate that portion of West Lockhart Street from the residential permit parking area, said Jarrett.  The other ideas were having an administrator from the high school out in front of the school and working to “keep things moving,” and having the police department increase its presence in that area, he explained.

The borough has already increased its police presence in that area as there is a police patrol dedicated to that school zone every morning, he said.  With two of these criteria having been met, borough officials will be pursuing the additional option of having a school administrator out in front of the school during those morning hours, Jarrett added.

Other amendments being proposed to the borough’s traffic ordinance include:

• setting 10-miles-per-hour speed limits for the entire lengths of Chacona Lane, LaBarr Lane, Oliver Lane and Repasky Lane.
• “no right turn on red signal” for motorists turning east from Lincoln Street into the northbound lane of Keystone Avenue and motorists turning west from Lincoln Street into the southbound lane of Keystone Avenue.

The committee will recommend that the council vote to advertise these proposed amendments to the traffic ordinance at its meeting this Thursday night. That session will be held at 6 p.m. at the borough on West Packer Avenue.
The council will then vote on whether to formally adopt these ordinance amendments at its Nov. 20 session.

Carroll & Carroll, P.C. handles pedestrian accidents.  You can find more information on these types of accidents here and here.

Sayre Borough: Mayor urges caution for motorists, pedestrians

Words of wisdom from Sayre, Pennsylvania Mayor Denny Thomas.

A serious car-versus-pedestrian accident that occurred on South Wilbur Avenue near the Guthrie campus last Thursday has resulted in Borough Mayor Denny Thomas urging motorists and pedestrians to use more caution when traveling down or crossing the street.

The individual who was struck last week, Kathleen Burnett of Waverly, is currently listed in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Robert Packer Hospital.  Borough Police Chief Kevin Guinane labeled the incident as an “accident” during Monday’s meeting of the municipality’s police committee. No additional information regarding last week’s accident has been released by the Sayre Borough Police Department.

There are approximately 10,000 vehicles that travel through the Borough of Sayre every day, said Thomas.  While Wilbur Avenue near the Guthrie campus has been a safety issue in the past, Guthrie officials have installed flashing yellow lights in an effort to help make that stretch of roadway safer, said Thomas.

In addition, the borough purchased “pedestrian crossing” signs that are placed in the crosswalks in the area in an effort to increase safety in that area, he noted.
Both motorists and pedestrians still need to exercise caution when traveling down or crossing any street, said Thomas.

“I’ve seen people drive their cars (while) on their cell phones,” he said. “Then you also see people coming across the ... crosswalks with headsets on, listening to music or whatever. People have to be more vigilant all the way around.”

The road in front of the old Robert Packer Hospital is dangerous.  There is so much traffic coming from/to the Guthrie campus, as well as pedestrians coming/going from the hospital to their parked cars and to downtown Sayre, that it creates a situation where walkers are likely to get hit.  Even though the article stated that no one was at fault, all it takes is a driver being inattentive for a split second to cause an accident like this.

To see the full article from The Morning Times, click here.

Superior Court upholds case of girl's fire hose death

A Pennsylvania appeals court upheld a $4.5 million jury verdict Tuesday against a truck manufacturer over an accident near Pittsburgh four years ago in which a six-pound fire hose nozzle became a fatal projectile.

The lawsuit was filed by two families over an August 2004 incident in Coraopolis in which a hose dangling from a moving fire truck became stuck under a parked car, then whipped around and struck two 10-year-old girls standing on a nearby lawn.

Erin Schmidt died of head injuries and her close friend and classmate, Joeylynne Jeffress, suffered extensive injuries but survived.

Erin Schmidt died of head injuries and her close friend and classmate, Joeylynne Jeffress, suffered extensive injuries but survived.

The plaintiffs also include three witnesses to the accident: Erin's mother, Joyce A. Schmidt; Erin's 13-year-old sister, Lindsay; and Joeylynne's 14-year-old sister, Lauren.

A divided three-judge Superior Court panel said state law allows bystanders who witness injury to a close relative to collect damages for emotional distress under certain circumstances.

"The courts have generally concluded that the definition of 'physical harm' encompasses injury that solely manifests itself in the form of emotional shock and disturbance," wrote Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen for the majority.

The court also ruled that Sinor Manufacturing Inc. of Clinton, Okla., which purchased at least parts of the company that manufactured the fire truck, inherited liability for the accident. Sinor is now known as Freightliner Specialty Vehicles Inc.

Court Holds Police Officer Injured Outside His Cruiser Is A Protected Person

On July 28, 2008, Judge Joyner in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Granted the Insured's Motion for Summary Judgment in St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Rhein.  Judge Joyner holds that Rhein was occupying his police vehicle at the time he was injured while conducting a routine traffic stop. 

In Rhein, the officer was injured in the course and scope of his employment.  He pulled over a speeding vehicle, stopped behind the car with his emergency lights on and exited his cruiser to conduct the stop.  At some point during the exchange of information the other driver's car began to roll backward and Rhein's hand became wedged inside the car door causing his injuries.  He settled the third party case with the other drivers insurance company and then sought underinsured motorist coverage form the Township insurer which denied coverage arguing that Rhein was not a "protected person" under the policy because he was not "occupying" the cruiser at the time of the accident.  

Applying the four (4) part "occupancy" test from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Utica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Contrisciane, 473 A.3d 1005 (Pa. 1984) the Court holds that Rhein was "occupying" the cruiser at the time of the accident.  One of the main issue to the four part test was whether Rhein was "vehicle oriented".  The court relies upon Property and Casualty Insurance Co. of Hartford v. Caperilla, 2004 WL 1551739 (E.D. Pa. July 9, 2004) where another officer was injure din a similar manner.    Thus, he is a covered and protected person and entitled to the underinsured motorist coverage.

Thanks to Attorney Scott Cooper for this information.