[Image: Marc Bjorkman speaking before the Newtown BOS on 10 January 2024. Listen...]
Newtown has a reputation as a walkable community…[but] on Buck Road at its intersection with Mill Pond Drive, an older woman walker from the Newtown Crossing development was struck by vehicles twice in one year, Newtown Township Police Chief John Hearn said, even though there is a traffic signal for pedestrians there.
Walking in Newtown Township and Borough can be dangerous as data collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation shows. Since 2018, 20 accidents involving pedestrians have been reported in the borough and surrounding Newtown Township, including two fatalities in 2021 and five other crashes involving suspected serious injuries.
Police Chief John Hearn Hearn told Newtown Township supervisors that serious vehicular accidents in the township rose from 45 in 2022 to 106 last year, a 136% increase.
Resident Marc Bjorkman showed the supervisors photos of car parts left by the side of the road from accidents that he thinks occurred when one vehicle rear-ended another that had stopped for a pedestrian. He said drivers in a second or third car behind a stopping vehicle may not see the pedestrian and that's why the flashing light to alert motorists to the crosswalk there is so important.
"This is a very dangerous intersection. People stop and people behind them don't see it (a pedestrian in the roadway)," Bjorkman said. He said residents have clocked people driving at 60 miles per hour on the road even though the speed limit is 25 mph at that intersection. Listen to his and other residents’ comments regarding pedestrian/vehicle safety at this crosswalk…https://youtu.be/8KdBOqvPvfQ
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