Some who live and work near the United Medical Center in southeast DC call the stretch of Southern Avenue SE it sits on a “death zone” because there are no nearby crosswalks or stop lights to help pedestrians get around.
How hard should it be to cross the road to the hospital?
At United Medical Center on Southern Avenue, it's not only hard -- it's dangerous, say local residents and hospital employees. On Tuesday, 68-year-old Faith Pines was struck and killed by a driver while she was leaving the hospital.
“How many more fatalities have to happen to protect the pedestrians, the residents and the employees of the hospital?” asked Pines’ goddaughter Kisha Bates.
There is a bus stop directly across from United Medical Center, but there is no accompanying crosswalk. The nearest stoplight and crosswalk are more than two blocks away.
According to DDOT, in order for a community to get a traffic light, 75 percent of its residents must sign a petition first. After that, DDOT engineers complete an assessment to further determine if a traffic light is truly necessary.
News4 watched on Monday as many people crossed the busy street and dodged cars to avoid the two-block detour. Vehicles on the road whipped by at highway-level speeds.
United Medical Center employee Christine Coghill calls the road “a death zone.”
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Three other major D.C. hospitals -- Georgetown, Howard University and George Washington -- each have bus stops immediately across from their entrances. Those three also have traffic lights.
Meanwhile, police are looking for the driver of a 1999 tan Mercedes that killed Pines last week. The abandoned car was later found on Benning Road. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9000.
