Death waits at this intersection

The KCStar's columnist Mike Hendricks wrote an article today about the recent pedestrian death of UMKC student Pei Chen:

College students I talked with at the corner think a stoplight would make them safer. There's resistance to that at City Hall. It would mean a light at every corner, from 55th to 52nd.

"It makes it very difficult to move traffic," says Jerry Tapscott, a traffic engineer.

Perhaps it would. Yet it's traffic moving too fast and far too carelessly that makes this city so dangerous for walkers and cyclists.

Kansas City is the 26th largest metro area in the country. Yet the Surface Transportation Policy Project ranks KC No. 20 on its list of U.S. cities most deadly to pedestrians.

The chances of someone on foot getting killed here is double or triple what it is in New York and Boston, where walkers are more common.

The Star also reports that UMKC students are raising funds to aid Chen's parents, who have been financially devastated by their daughter's death.

Star Reader Joseph Gardner pointedly comments that "A woman who is accused of speeding, driving through a crosswalk and hitting a UMKC student who eventually dies from her injuries, is charged with only a misdemeanor? Could somebody please tell me what's wrong with this picture?"