Five years ago next month, a pickup truck, rushing to beat a red light, accelerated, turned left onto a side street, and hit the stroller that carried my three month old daughter right out of my wife’s hands. In a crosswalk. In broad daylight. So you will need to forgive me when I say that pedestrian safety discussions take me back to that Saturday morning. 

I park and walk up to Scaife Hall and on that route I pass multiple spots where our neighbors were killed by vehicles. On that same walk, I must navigate cars that fly under red lights, trucks and buses barely stopping at stop signs, and daily changes of open and closed sidewalks due to construction. I keep Dr. David Salcido’s advice to “treat every intersection like a threat to your life” every day I am on campus.

I remember that one of our associate deans was hit and injured by a vehicle here on campus. I think back to our medical students who report diving out of the way of cars and even being hit by them as they report to our hospitals. As we prepare for our upcoming LCME (Liaison Committee on Medical Education) re-accreditation, there is concern that students don’t feel safe on campus and that reason is not violent crime: it is their ability to get around without being injured while crossing the streets. 

Employers concern themselves with what happens to their employees while at work. If there were multiple “threats” encountered during the work day, surely the employer would do something to mitigate them. That’s the level of responsibility I would like to see from the University of Pittsburgh. Even if the streets are not owned by Pitt. Even if this a complex issue. Because the staff, students, faculty, visitors and alumni of this school continue to be injured by lost, confused and ignorant drivers. I urge our employer to use its influence to keep us safe. I also urge our community to report near-misses, close calls, and injuries to the University.

In shock and remorseful, the driver who hit my daughter kept going back to one phrase: I didn’t hit them that hard. In this world where we often feel threatened from many angles, remember Dr. Salcido’s advice: multiple threats await you at every intersection. The speed of those threats is variable. Please be careful going home tonight. 

Greg Null
School of Medicine