The estate should sue the engineers for negligence in failing to install a proper crosswalk. Car-supremacist thinking is pervasive within the industry (I say as a former traffic engineer, BTW) and the only way to get some of them to change is to hit them in the P.E. license.
Yes, it is exactly the traffic engineers at fault! They're the ones who sign off on and take legal responsibility for the design! That's the entire point of engineering being a licensed profession in the first place.
Let me make this very clear: every licensed engineer has an absolute moral and legal obligation to refuse to sign off on any unsafe design, no matter what some fucking politician wants. Period, end of. And designs that are not Complete Streets, with sidewalks and crosswalks, are inherently unsafe. Also period, end of.
Every pedestrian killed by the lack of a crosswalk should result in a traffic engineer permanently losing their license and being forced to change careers. It is only through that threat that they will begin to take pedestrian lives seriously!
I ain't here to doen play their roles but from organizational perspective ain't they essentially tell daddy boss best way to do it then daddy boss tells them to get fucked and it will be done this way or a highway generally due to corruption/politics.
Under this fact pattern while engineers are responsible to protest, I would posit the ultimate discioson maker should be held criminally liable first then we can talk about engineers proffesional responsibilities.
The way that it works is that the plans for every construction project like this must be stamped by a licensed engineer, or else they cannot legally be built. Then, the construction itself must be supervised by another licensed engineer, to ensure that the as-built condition conforms to the plans or that changes are properly vetted for safety.
Under this fact pattern while engineers are responsible to protest, I would posit the ultimate discioson maker should be held criminally liable first then we can talk about engineers proffesional responsibilities.
That "fact pattern" is false. The ultimate decision maker, the person who should be held criminally liable, is the principal engineer who stamped the plans.
It would be nice if the roads that lacked a crossing weren't so lethal to pedestrians. Maybe remind drivers that other people use the road as well as them?
The problem is that they don’t care. If anything is impeding their travel from A to B, drivers get angry at it. Doesn’t matter if it’s someone going the speed limit or a pedestrian. It’s in the way, therefore it’s bad.
The number of people who creep forward and honk at seniors crossing a street at a crosswalk while they have the signal is absurd. Imagine being so impatient that you nearly run over your own grandmother to shave 5 seconds off your travel time.
I specifically try to never let a car take my right of way while crossing, too often i see people just wave a left turning car through then 5 other cars go and now the crossing is red and you have to wait another 5 minute for a safe chance to cross.