New research finds walking and driving in our region is getting more dangerous.
On Friday, a man pleaded guilty in court to a hit and run in 2022, bringing even more urgency to the problem of addressing street safety.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Nikolai died crossing the street heading to Ted Drewes on Chippewa Street. Twenty-seven-year-old Jacob Adler pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence. Court documents show Adler drove into the teen crossing the street, never reporting the accident to police. Soon after, he took his truck to a body shop to repair the damage.
“Slow down,” said Nancy Cambria, a spokesperson with East-West Gateway Council of Governments, a planning agency funded with local and federal dollars.
Cambria is part of a team behind a new 150-page report that outlines ways to achieve a lofty goal: a 50 percent drop in crashes leading to death and serious injury within the next two and a half decades.
“It's not just towards roadways, but also policy changes, driver behavior changes,” she said.
The report addresses some of the biggest problems that lead to danger on Missouri roads: lack of seatbelt use and enforcement, impaired driving, and speeding. Cambria also stresses the need to focus on areas with the most crashes, like parts of West Florissant Avenue in the city and county.
“There are more crashes, they increased after the pandemic, pedestrian related crashes particularly increased. So there's a vulnerability out there,” said Cambria.
St. Louis city police tell the I-Team there have been 41 hit and runs so far this year. Cambria said with more awareness and vigilance, they’re dangers that are completely avoidable.
“And we can really save lives and make a big difference,” Cambria said.
The I-Team reached out to the City of St. Louis’ Office of the Mayor about how the city plans to increase safety in the area where the recent death happened near Ted Drewes. Spokesperson Rasmus Jorgensen told us: “The City is currently in the design finalization phase for traffic calming improvements in the 6700 block of Chippewa. The scope of that work includes enhanced street lighting and pavement markings, driveway relocation and reconfiguration for safer access to and from Ted Drewes, installation of an enhanced pedestrian crosswalk, pedestrian traffic signal and center median, and bumped out curbing for a wider sidewalk area with a permanent fencing barrier to discourage pedestrians from crossing Chippewa except at the pedestrian crosswalk or at adjacent signalized intersections.”
The city said they are planning on widening sidewalks and adding traffic signals, among other measures.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, there have been 113 total crash reports involving pedestrians in 2024. A total of 41 of those reports involved a vehicle that left the scene, and eight of those reports involved fatalities. Five of those reports resulted in no injuries.
Comparing the same time period from last year, there were 117 total crash reports involving pedestrians in 2023. A total of 45 involved a vehicle that left the scene. Three involved fatalities and six involved no reported injury.