Colonie

Town police are investigating the death of a man who was crossing Central Avenue late Thursday — the latest in a lengthy stretch of pedestrian fatalities on the well-traveled road.

Kyle Canabush, 29, was crossing Central Avenue at about 8:50 p.m., near Kraft Avenue, when he was struck by a vehicle driven by Robert Morrison, 37, of Colonie. Canabush was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he died from his injuries, police said.

Between 2009 and 2013, eight people were killed along the 15.4-mile stretch of Route 5 from where it begins in Albany to just before the Western Gateway Bridge in Schenectady, where it is called State Street.

In April 2013, the Times Union reviewed 25 years of crash data and found that a pedestrian had been hit by a car on Route 5 on average of more than once a week. The state Department of Transportation launched an effort to reduce pedestrian accidents. DOT installed pedestrian buttons at several Central Avenue intersections — at Route 155, Fuller and Wolf roads, the Northway and Colonie Center malls — that cause the signals to light up and emit an audible tone to alert pedestrians to wait to cross the street.

At other intersections, DOT installed signals where the "walk" sign lights up before cars turning onto the street receive a green light. It gives a pedestrian a chance to start across the street before drivers turn.

The cause of Thursday's accident is under investigation by the Colonie Police Traffic Safety Unit. Police ask anyone with information to call 783-2744.

rgavin@timesunion.com • 518-434-2403 • @RobertGavinTU