Third Street pedestrian’s death puts focus on area safety

Tragedy has sparked a familiar community conversation about pedestrians, traffic and safety. A man identified Monday as 38-year-old Nathan Bernhardt died at St. Charles-Bend Saturday night after being hit by a car on Southeast Third Street.

Comments from NewsChannel 21’s Facebook page reveal concerns, as some commenters wonder why the traffic lights at the intersection was removed about a year ago.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is in general not responsible for Third Street, also known as Business 97, but ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy offered some comments Monday on why the decision was made to remove the lights following the Murphy Road project.

The decision was made “to reduce the number of crashes that were happening there so that was kind of the motivation,” Murphy said.

So with the crashes in the area and the heavy traffic, why take out the signals?

“When you put up a stoplight, you actually have a tendency to increase severe crashes,” Murphy said. “People who suddenly ‘wake up’ and see that they’ve got a stoplight will hit the brakes, and then someone behind them will come into them and that kind of does a chain reaction.”

Murphy said if you add a cross street, like Pinebrook Boulevard, T-bone crashes can occur.

Police said the victim was crossing the street at that corner, wearing dark clothing. Few other details have been released, pending the continued investigation, other than that the 19-year-old driver has been cooperating with police.

Bend police said there’s actually no jaywalking prohibition in Oregon, and the city has no ordinance against it. So you can cross the street at any point, even if there’s no marked crosswalk, as long as you’re being safe and not disrupting traffic.

If you can use a marked crosswalk, that is preferred. But as police Lt. Clint Burleigh of Bend noted, that’s not always possible.

“If you look in a neighborhood, how many neighborhoods have a marked crosswalk?” he said. “What I tell people is make sure that intersections are good, because it’s places where vehicles are going to see another vehicle. As they’re going through an intersection, they’re looking for other cars, they’re looking for hazards.”

When it comes down to it, maybe the most important thing to do when crossing is be patient, so you can be safe.

“A pedestrian who’s in that area who wants to get from one side to the other really has to be patient,” Murphy said. “And I know that’s hard for us, but patience is going to help save lives.”

It can be a matter of life and death.

Burleigh noted that Monday is Halloween, when many more people are walking streets and neighborhoods. He said wearing reflective or bright clothing is much safer than wearing dark clothing.