Just Another, and Another, and Another Pedestrian Killed on State Street
Springfield Central Library, outside of which multiple people have lost their lives trying to cross the street. (Source: Flickr/cmh2315fl.)
We expect that the people who design and maintain our streets hold safety as their highest priority. In places where safety shortcomings have been revealed, we expect those problems to be addressed. And where the problems are both obvious and broadly understood, as they are on State Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, we rightly expect some urgency.
So, how do we explain a situation where people are routinely killed—in the same location—and nothing is done? How are we to understand this?
Destiny Gonzalez, killed crossing State Street in front of the Central Library in December 2014.
Gayle Ball, killed crossing State Street in front of the Central Library in November 2019.
Now, also, Michael Cooley, killed crossing State Street near the Central Library in November 2023.
These are just the people who have been killed on State Street at the Central Library. Many more have been hit. Many more have been killed on other city streets.
How is this possible?
Back in 2017, I wrote a letter to the city of Springfield offering to help them redesign State Street to make it safe. The offer was pro-bono; we need to fix this street. As an alternative, I said that if they did not take me up on the offer, I was prepared to testify on behalf of the next victim of this dangerous street. Springfield is guilty of gross negligence. They should be held accountable.
After Gayle Ball was killed, I did speak with an attorney who was in the process of bringing a claim against the city. I’m not an attorney, and I don’t pretend to know tort law, especially in the state of Massachusetts. Yet, I was shocked to learn from this attorney that the damages that could be awarded were so low as to hardly justify bringing a case.
Massachusetts, like many other states, limits damage awards to protect local governments. I have $150,000 as the cap written in my notes, but my review of state statutes suggests the limit is only $100,000. Either way, that’s nothing for a death due to the gross negligence of the government. Nothing, especially when the city contests the suit (which I was told they were).
The idea of limiting liability for local governments is not without merit, especially when it comes to street design. After all, we know that accepted industry standards routinely create dangerous situations on local streets. An engineer caught between adhering to rote standards and designing for safety needs to be free of liability to choose safety.
Instead, Springfield officials have used the threat of liability as a reason for not taking action. Back in 2017, Director of Public Works Chris Cignoli explained why there “was no practical way of making [a State Street crossing] safe for pedestrians” in an article for MassLive. "Do I want to try to find some solution? Yeah, but I never want to go against the rules and regulations of what we should do and expose the city to more problems.”
What are these rules and regulations? Cignoli elaborated later in the article. "We have to make it safe because if one person does it and gets hurt I have to justify why I'm doing stuff that's against kind of the bible of traffic design," he said. "If I'm going to get sued, I want to have the rules and regulations behind me."
That’s absurd. Cignoli is not going to be sued. The city of Springfield is not going to be sued, despite their gross negligence. And, if they are, they face almost no penalty for a design that repeatedly kills people. Why is the city worried about liability?
More importantly, why aren’t they worried about people being killed?
A couple weeks before Michael Cooley was killed, Masslive ran an article asking—again—why nothing was being done. Cignoli was quoted saying, “We kind of have to stay away from the emotion of, ‘Hey, somebody got seriously hurt here. Just do something.’”
Somebody got seriously hurt here? Three people have died. Do your f-ing job!
After Gayle Ball was killed, the city announced plans to build a raised crosswalk outside the library and narrow the road to one lane in each direction, rather than two, to slow cars. The simple project was then delayed so Cignoli’s office could study the impact to traffic flow, which, let’s be clear, is a higher priority than human life for the Springfield Department of Public Works. The project is now awaiting federal funding, the default impotence of inaction for local governments.
Springfield should not be worried about liability. They should not be worried about traffic flow on their neighborhood streets. They should not be worried about securing federal grant assistance. What they should be obsessed over is the growing death toll throughout the community, deaths that their own studies have demonstrated are preventable, and at low cost.
When it comes to safe streets, Springfield has done everything wrong. If I had the opportunity, I would fire the entire senior staff and start over. If state law allowed, I’d support litigating them into bankruptcy. This is the definition of gross negligence, the worst incompetency I’ve seen, and I’ve traveled to every state meeting with engineers, traffic safety officials, and advocates.
My message to everyone else is simple: don’t be a Springfield. We’ve made it easy for you to start your own Crash Analysis Studio to put safety at the heart of your transportation approach. The course is free, of course, and we’re here to help. If you’d like, we can even come to your community and get you started.
Charles Marohn—known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues—is the founder and president of Strong Towns. He is a land use planner and civil engineer with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.
Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019) and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (Wiley 2021). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America.