RELATED STORY: Faculty Council continues focus on safety issues
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A month ago, this stretch of asphalt along Manning Drive had been a death
scene.
On the chilly afternoon of Dec. 1, the spot became a stage for a rally
aimed at stopping more people from dying.
After holding a moment of silence, University employees, students, town
officials and others marched across the path in front of the School of
Dentistry where Matsukawa "Yoshi" Fusayoshi suffered fatal head wounds when a
driver hit him after pulling from behind a parked bus.
Fusayoshi had arrived at the University from Japan only weeks before to
teach and study as a postdoctoral student at the School of Dentistry. He died
Nov. 6, two days after the accident. He was 34.
Some in the crowd carried signs or chanted slogans with messages such as
"Tar Heels not Car Wheels," "Protect our People" and "Safety Now."
Although the event sometimes had the look and feel of a protest march,
both University administrators and rally organizers made it clear before,
during and after the rally that they want to remain on the same side, attacking
the problem rather than each other.
Walk anywhere on Manning Drive and South Road, and you will see a jumble
of people in a hurry. Some are behind a wheel. Some are on foot. They have to
share the road to get where they are going, and that creates the possibility of
people getting hurt -- or killed.
Organizers of the rally said Matsukawa's death brought into sharper focus
the dangers that students, faculty members, staff and patients face every time
they attempt to cross the street.
As the rally began, Dan Shugars, a rally organizer and a professor in the
School of Dentistry, described Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy as "an
ally."
In Shugar's view, the real enemy is delay in doing something to reduce
those dangers. Action needs to be taken now, not months from now after somebody
else is killed.
"My hope is today's rally, with the chancellor's assistance, will create
some momentum that we can use to continue," Shugars said. "This is a problem
that is not going to go away."
The marchers walked from the south campus and stopped at the steps of
South Building where McCoy and others stood waiting to greet them.
Unified effort needed
In his speech, McCoy commended the marchers for trying to channel
the sorrow of the tragedy into the energy needed to seek quicker
solutions.
The chancellor announced that a permanent committee will be formed to
develop both short- and long-term recommendations. The committee will include
members from the University, the Town of Chapel Hill and the state Department
of Transportation.
"I would like to commit the University's whole-hearted interest and effort
to making sure that pedestrian safety is a fact on campus here at Carolina,"
McCoy said. " ... Let me thank you for your efforts today, your commitment. I
think it means a lot to all of us. I do believe that we are working together
for a common goal."
Mark Lang, a rally organizer and a professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business
School, emphasized as he introduced speakers at South Building that the rally
was never intended to be confrontational.
"What we're trying to do here today is to alleviate some of the
frustration that is felt by both pedestrians and motorists when dealing with
this situation," he said.
"We are certainly not here to point fingers at anyone, but rather to offer
our assistance in focusing attention on what we think are some very important
issues."
Joe Capowski, the former mayor pro-tem of Chapel Hill, recently described
the area around UNC Hospitals as "the Beirut of campus" and said permanent
solutions won't be accomplished until decades from now after a new master plan
makes the whole campus safer for pedestrians.
But Capowski said the problem is too severe now to wait.
Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf said she agreed with Capowski that the
University should do more but said town and state transportation officials must
be a part of that effort.
"I look forward to working with all partners to improve pedestrian safety
all over the town," Waldorf said.
The words delivered by Nic Heinke, the student body president, seemed to
sum up both the mood and motivation of the march.
"It's unfortunate that it takes an unbelievably tragic incident to start
something like this, but it is very important that this thing does not die when
the current memory of the tragedy dies," Heinke said.
"My hope is that this group continues to work, continues to reach out
hands to others and really builds a community and builds a movement that
continues until this problem is solved."
Efforts started
Even as organizers were promoting the rally, University officials
already had begun enlisting state transportation and town officials for the
help they must provide to find and implement permanent solutions.
On the day before the rally was held, University Police Chief Derek Poarch
met with an array of people at the Smith Center to hear concerns and
suggestions. One key participant at that meeting was Vance Barham, an engineer
with the state Department of Transportation who pledged his support in helping
to find answers.
Since the accident, the public safety department has put up a temporary
sign in the middle of Manning Drive at the marked crosswalk where Matsukawa's
fatal accident occurred.
Several citations have been issued in the past two weeks to motorists who
have failed to stop for pedestrians. Campus policy and state law require
motorists to stop and yield the right-of-way to pedestrians using marked
crosswalks.
A radar-activated mobile trailer has been set up on Manning Drive to alert
motorists how fast they are driving compared to the speed limit.
Still, Poarch said, his department is restricted in what it can do to
implement permanent solutions because of limited manpower and
jurisdiction.
One thing the University cannot do is impose new safety measures such as
flashing lights on roads it does not control or maintain, Poarch said. The
University oversees only Stadium Drive and Smith Center Drive. All the other
roads on campus fall within the jurisdiction of either the town or the
state.
The state works with the town in the design, maintenance and control of
many of these streets and must approve any change in a public right of way,
including new traffic signals or a change in the placement of pedestrian
crossings.
Poarch said he recognized the dangers to pedestrians as soon as he took
the job of police chief in the fall of 1998 and had sought ways to reduce those
dangers months before the fatality.
In a pedestrian-safety initiative launched in January 1999, campus police
passed out safety flyers to pedestrians and motorists at busy crosswalks.
Verbal and written warnings were given to motorists who failed to stop for
pedestrians, and starting in February, citations were issued to motorists
failing to stop for pedestrians. Education and enforcement efforts have
continued throughout the year.
The poster child
Mimi Keever, a director for the University's Learning Center,
participated in the march sitting in a wheelchair. She was hit by a car Sept.
28 as she crossed South Road by Wilson Library.
"Several cars stopped for me," she said, "but one didn't."
She was thrown on top of the car and into the windshield, she said. It was
an accident similar to the one that killed Matsukawa, but she was lucky, she
said. She broke her leg and lived.
Keever received loud applause when she told her story in front of the
crowd at South Building. "I was on the cause beforehand, but now I'm the poster
child," she said.
Hours before her accident, Keever said, she had called attention to the
need to improve pedestrian safety during a meeting about the new master plan
being developed for campus. The irony of the day's events were not lost on her,
even at the time of the accident.
"When I got hit, I actually said `Unbelievable' out loud to myself," she
said.
Another rally organizer was Dorothy Verkerk, an assistant professor with
the art department who said her own life changed three years ago when she saw
an elderly neighbor killed under the wheels of a bus.
"She was dead immediately," Verkerk said. "The worn shoes scattered over
the highway really got me."
It changed the way she drove.
It changed her way of thinking.
It changed her into somebody eager to do something. And that is why she
helped organize the rally, she said.
"We know it is going to take the University, the town and the state
working together to get these streets safer for pedestrians," Verkerk said.
"This is not about pointing fingers. It's about trying to get people together.
"We have to do a lot more than simply protest. This is just to raise
awareness. There is a long, long road to go."
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