Drive safely, and look out for moms, babies

Leslie Everett prepares to use the crosswalk at Wyoming and Carmel NE, a trip she makes often but one she says is dangerous because cars don’t appear to know they must give pedestrians the right of way in crosswalks. In the stroller are her children, Jaren, 3, (left, not visible) and Kaylen, 2. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal.)

Note to motorists:

It is never a good idea to nearly run over a mom pushing a jogging stroller. It’s an even worse idea when that stroller is double occupancy.

Worse still? When that mom pushing the stroller is Leslie Everett.

I mean, obviously.

And then again, it’s apparently not so obvious to those drivers Everett says seem oblivious to her and her double-wide, bright-orange, sport-utility stroller when she rolls through the crosswalks at Wyoming and Carmel NE.

“No way these people could miss seeing me so many times,” she says in her street-tough New Bedford (or Bed-FUD, as she says it), Mass., accent that has yet to mellow into Albuquerque’s more sedate style. “It’s just frustrating that you can’t just walk to the store and not fear for your life.”

Everett says she has been nearly clipped so many times in the crosswalk de muerto that her husband, John, would prefer that she simply take the car to make the 10-minute trip from their North Domingo Baca home to the nearby Smith’s on the southeastern side of the intersection. So many times that Everett won’t let her mother make the short walk to the store with the kids.

“But I don’t want these drivers to make my decision,” she said. “I want to teach my kids to stand up for what is good in their community, not sit silently by and let people push you over.”

Or run you over.

Besides, she says, walking is great exercise for a stay-at-home mom with two toddlers — as if dealing with toddlers all day weren’t exercise enough.

So it was on Feb. 25 when she was nearly hit not once, but twice — once coming, once going — as she crossed Wyoming at Carmel that she was done with being silent.

She called Albuquerque police, filed a report, went home and typed out an impassioned email to the Journal.

“I wrote with such fury,” she says. “I was irate. I was so upset. You keep hearing about pedestrians getting killed across the city. It will eventually happen here. It could be me and my children. So I decided something needs to happen. These people need to stop acting so irrational, especially when babies are involved.”

We met that next day at Wyoming and Carmel — I in my minivan, she with her orange behemoth of a stroller carrying her children, Kaylen, 2, and Jaren, 3. As cars zipped along and pedestrians took their chances, she described her latest brushes with crosswalk catastrophe.

The first incident involved a silver compact sedan with tinted windows and two passengers turning north on Wyoming from westbound Carmel; the second, a small white car driven by a man turning south on Wyoming from westbound Carmel who yelled that he had the right of way.

(State statute, incidentally, dictates that vehicles must yield the right of way to pedestrians in a crosswalk. Conversely, pedestrians must not suddenly dart into the street in a way that a vehicle has no chance to yield.)

Both times she had the green light, was in the crosswalk and had looked both ways. Both times the cars came so close she could have kicked them.

“My husband said I should have kicked so police would know which car almost killed me,” Everett said. “I was amazed they didn’t run me over.”

But Wyoming and Carmel hardly fits the description of a death trap. This well-traveled intersection is in the newer, cushier side of town where roads are smooth and views are wide-open, and a fire and police station are just steps away. To the north is La Cueva High School. To the east is a large apartment complex and Desert Ridge Middle School. To the west is the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center and an adjoining park (Everett lives on the northern edge of the park). To the south is a large shopping center anchored by Smith’s.

Stoplights are functioning, and a flashing crosswalk beacon counts down the seconds pedestrians have to cross the street. Crosswalks are painted at all four entry points. The speed limit, which has been as high as 40 mph and as low as 30 mph, is a reasonable 35 mph.

Yet since mid-December, six non-injury traffic crashes have occurred at the intersection, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. No data suggests how many near-miss pedestrian incidents have occurred here, if any.

Mark Motsko, public information officer with the city’s Department of Municipal Development, said he was not aware of other complaints about the intersection. Structurally, it’s a pretty safe intersection, he said.

But after hearing of Everett’s concerns, Motsko said the city will look into whether the crosswalks need to be repainted and whether “Pedestrians Ahead” signs might help.

Everett says she will continue to push for improvements like this, but she knows there is only so much the city can do.

“The city can do its part, but the rest of us need to stop acting like morons who don’t watch out for people,” she says. “If you don’t, you’ll have to live with that on your conscience and you’ll have the death of a mother and her children on your hands.”

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal