An 80-year-old woman was taken to the hospital Tuesday evening after she was hit by a vehicle while crossing at Austin Highway and Perrin Beitel, raising renewed concerns from nearby residents about a malfunctioning pedestrian beacon and poor lighting in the area.
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San Antonio police said the driver struck the woman at approximately 30 to 35 miles an hour. Officers at the scene said the crosswalk signal was not working at the time of the collision.
The pedestrian crossing signs at the crosswalk are designed to flash to alert drivers to slow down and stop for people crossing, but people who live and work nearby said the lights have been dark.
“People usually don’t stop, they don’t care if you’re crossing. Even if you have the yellow lights, even if you had that, they just don’t respect it. But the lights aren’t working,” said Jason Chavarria Lopez, who works and lives near the intersection.
Lopez said he has seen the lights working and then stop working again, and he said visibility is also a problem at night.
“It would be very good if we had more lightning. It is very dark at night. It just gets so dark. Sometimes, the only thing you have to see as someone who’s driving, is the headlights from your car, and as someone who’s walking around, you basically have nothing,” Lopez said.
Another resident, Chris Zepeda, said he was not surprised by the crash and suggested additional safety measures.
“Maybe even instead of a blinking light put a red light there or something and people need to realize that they need to stop when people are crossing,” Zepeda said.
City officials said they were not aware of the beacon problem in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s crash but plan to look into it.
“TxDOT installed this mid-block pedestrian beacon a few years ago. The City now maintains it. The City had not received any notification of the beacon malfunctioning in the weeks prior to this crash but will investigate,” the city said in a statement.
People who live and work near Austin Highway and Perrin Beitel said they hope repairs and improvements happen soon to prevent another person from being hurt.