Spike in vehicle versus pedestrian incident causes concern for Lexington Police

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ) — “One of the things that we’re seeing and we’ve we’ve seen throughout this year with with our pedestrians being hit by cars, is those pedestrians are not in the crosswalk. Frequently, they’re midblock, Or maybe they’re a little bit closer to the crosswalk, but they’re crossing against the light,” says Lieutenant Chris Van Brackel with the Lexington Police Department.

In the span of five days, there’s been three incidents of vehicles versus pedestrians.
Lexington Police say, there needs to be more awareness and to exercise caution, to help prevent any more incidents.

“Pedestrians overestimate how visible they are, we think the driver of the car must see us because we can see the car. And unfortunately, with all the distractions in a car, you’ve got the newer cars, the big, the big touchscreen, everyone’s got a phone in the car, you might have the radio on all of the lights and sounds of other vehicles around, those are all distractions for that driver. And while they’re while they’re looking at all of those, a pedestrian really isn’t very big, so they’re easy for us to miss,” added Lt. Van Brackel.

On Friday, Lisa Walls of Lexington was hit and killed by a vehicle on Richmond Road.
Fast forward to Sunday, where Jhonda Gonzalez Perez suffered life-threatening injuries after being hit on New Circle Road, the coroner confirming on Tuesday, that Gonzalez Perez had died from her injuries.
Also police are investigating a hit and run from early Tuesday morning after officials say a car hit Anna Kolokotsas on North Broadway and Fourth Street.
Authorities later confirming Kolokotsas died from her injuries.

“For pedestrians, make sure that car can see you don’t assume if it’s daylight, and you can see the driver, make sure you have eye contact, use the crosswalk, wait for the lights,” says Lieutenant Van Brackel, adding that the clothing you wear can also cause an impact.

“The other issue we’re having now, now that we’ve had the time change, we’re getting dark earlier. Almost all of these pedestrians, again, everybody wears dark clothing. Brighter colors during the daytime, certainly help and then anything, even if it’s a small amount of reflective material, or a light,” says Van Brackel.

And for those wondering what happens after in cases of vehicles versus pedestrians, “most of our situations where a pedestrian has been hit by a car this year, we’re not charging the driver, they didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t see that pedestrian. And then you know, just as a matter of course we normally don’t take a pedestrian that’s been hit by a car and say oh, by the way, here’s a ticket for jaywalking,” said Van Brackel.

If you’re curious about reflective clothing, click here.