Improvements sought for White Horse Road following pedestrian deaths

In the same month this year, on different days and times, Bobbie G. Hudgens, and Derek L. Jackson did something many people do every day: They attempted to walk across White Horse Road.

Both were struck and killed by vehicles.

Hudgens, 57, of Greenville, died on March 3, and Jackson, 39, of Columbia, died on March 17, according to the Greenville County Coroner’s Office.

Their deaths put them on a list of 13 pedestrian traffic deaths along White Horse Road in a five-year period, a report from the coroner’s office said. That includes one pedestrian death in 2012, three in 2013, two in 2014, two in 2015, four in 2016 and three so far this year.

The number of fatal pedestrian accidents on White Horse Road and in other parts of the community are concerning enough that one activist group, Freedom Fighters, is distributing free reflective vests to pedestrians.

Community leaders also are pushing for improvements along the six-lane White Horse Road, also known as U.S. 25, that traverses Greenville County from north to south through the westside. Population growth, a lack of public transportation, a lack of crosswalks and a shortage of street lights contribute to the danger for pedestrians, they say. But they also point out that people who walk along and across the highway have a responsibility to keep themselves safe.

Case for safety

Freedom Fighters CEO Traci Fant is among those leading efforts to keep pedestrians safe. She’s also working with families to solve hit-and-run cases.

Pedestrian safety is a cause Freedom Fighters has taken on because the county's population growth has resulted in “more people walking in the different areas, whether they’re going to a store or walking to work,” Fant said. Her group’s overarching mission is to “promote peace, unity and justice” for all.

A significant problem with White Horse Road is that much of it is dark and Fant is advocating for more streetlights and crosswalks to enhance pedestrian safety.

But adding streetlights is not as easy as it sounds. The state Department of Transportation does not install lights, said Stephanie Jackson-Amell, the DOT district engineering administrator, in an email to The Greenville News.

“The street lighting on projects that we do are normally paid for by a municipality or a business, which also maintains and pays the light bill,” Jackson-Amell said.

Neighborhoods in the county can get streetlights installed by creating a special tax district, according to the Greenville County government’s website. Information on creating such a tax district can be obtained through the county attorney’s office.

Greenville County Councilman Lynn Ballard, who represents District 26 and is chair of the county’s public safety committee, said he has been asked to look into the problems in the White Horse Road corridor after Fant brought her concerns before the council.

He recently rode with Fant and local news crews on a tour of the White Horse Road area, focusing on a five-mile stretch between Augusta Road and State 253.

The goal was to look for ways to deal with the pedestrian deaths occurring on the White Horse Corridor, he said.

“A lot of that area does not have streetlights and there are very few crosswalks,” Ballard said. “People were crossing in areas where they weren’t seen until people were upon them and hit them.”

Ballard said most hit and runs were in that five-mile stretch.

From 2014 through early 2017, there have been at least five fatal hit-and-runs on White Horse Road.

“That seems to be the most prevalent (area) for hit and run fatalities in Greenville County,” he said.

One example: At 5 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2014, Isaiah James McGuinness, a student at Berea High School, was struck multiple times near the intersection of White Horse Road and Lily Street, according to the Coroner’s Office. Facebook friends said he was walking home from a friend’s house to get ready for school when the accident happened.

He died at the scene. No one has been charged in the incident.

McGuinness would have graduated this year. Instead, his memory was honored by leaders and students during Berea’s graduation ceremony earlier this month, when a family member was presented with a plaque in his honor.

Dangerous crossing

Terry Turner, president of Welcome/Tanglewood/Carolina Crimewatch Community Action, believes there are many reasons for the pedestrian fatalities in that area.

“Our poverty rate is exceedingly high, with many walkers. We have walkers all within our 24-hours,” she said.

They must walk, she said, for many reasons — work, groceries, doctor visits and social reasons.

Greenlink operates Monday-Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It does not operate on seven major holidays.

“One’s choices are Greenlink within their hours, a cab or Uber, should your budget allow, or bicycle/walking,” Turner said in an email.

"We, too, have many homeless that walk the majority of their day without any opportunity of transportation," she said. "Our walkers are not outfitted with anything providing a reflection so our vehicle lights can capture them. You must be VERY attentive traveling our area – distracted driving and speed are major factors. Also, lack of proper lighting and ‘safe’ crosswalks practically does not exist.”

Many of the walkers, Turner said, do not wear bright colors as a habit – “they wear what they have – mostly dark colors.”

White Horse Road is the major artery within District 25, which is creating far more growth in population along White Horse, she said. “More and more of our new arrivers are accustomed to the downtown areas and not such a massive thoroughfare."

As the population in the White Horse Road corridor grows, the county needs to improve the infrastructure so it can support the increasing numbers of residents, she said.

“I read and witness daily all the monies ... being spent on Woodruff Road because of the 'problem child' it has become, but I am not reading or seeing any initiative currently being developed to solve this tremendous issue. How many more lives must we lose before this devastating issue gets resolved?” Turner said.

There are many housing units near White Horse Road. There are also long stretches of highway without stoplights and crosswalks.

When the people who live near White Horse Road need to go to a convenience store or other places along the strip, they cross in the middle of the road, Ballard said.

“The road has sidewalks but the problem is those people crossing from one side to the other,” he said. “That plays into the whole scheme of things.”

Another concern is the lack of public transportation at night throughout Greenville and particularly in that area.

County Councilman Ennis Fant, who represents District 25 (he is not related to Traci Fant), said gentrification in the city of Greenville is a reason the White Horse Road area is overcrowded.

“When gentrification took hold between 2010 and 2015, most of those people moved to White Horse Road. Either they have relatives that live in the area or they know someone there,” Fant said. “So you have severe overcrowding."

He said many of those who were displaced lack jobs, transportation, and resources.

“So, when they have to go to the store or to get anything, they have to walk along a busy, six-lane highway, which is causing these fatalities,” he said.

The county is looking at solutions such as affordable housing and scattered-site development to provide places for people to live so they’re not concentrated in an area where they have to walk for resources when adequate pedestrian infrastructure does not exist, Fant said.

The county also is arguing for Greenlink to expand beyond Augusta Road to more of White Horse Road, he said.

“In our budget workshop in a few weeks, I’m going to try to make sure we get some additional funding for Greenlink so they can never say to me again, ‘We don’t have funding to go up one exit,’” he said. “You can’t put a price tag on people’s lives.”

Nicole McAden, Greenlink’s marketing and program specialist, said the system’s Route 2, for White Horse Road, is its most heavily used route.

That route enters White Horse Road near West Washington Avenue, travels north and exits onto Lily Street. Greenlink’s Route 6 serves a section of White Horse between Old Easley Bridge Road and Sandra Avenue. Further south, Route 10 serves a portion of White Horse between Augusta Road and Crestfield Road.

To expand the Greenlink bus routes' distance, McAden said, would likely require the addition of another bus to the route.

When a bus leaves the transit station, it is expected to make its loop and return within an hour, she said.

Being careful

White Horse Road is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Greenville County with average daily traffic counts a high as 36,800 from Interstate 85 to Anderson Road and as low as 9,000 in the Fountain Inn and Laurens County area.

South Carolina Highway Patrol spokesman Joel Hovis said White Horse Road and other highways like it that go through so many communities often see significant numbers of pedestrian-related traffic incidents.

“Anytime you’re on a highway where there are a lot of communities, stores, and businesses, you’re going to have traffic. You’re going to have bicycle, motorcycle and pedestrian traffic,” he said.

He said on roads such as White Horse, where there’s a lot going on, pedestrians have to be “really careful.”

Hovis said pedestrians can help protect themselves by using the sidewalk. When there is no sidewalk, pedestrians should walk facing traffic but as far away from the road as possible.

“Especially in today’s world when you have distracted drivers, people texting and stuff like that, it’s easy for them to run off the road,” he said.

Pedestrians also are encouraged to use a crosswalk if one is available.

“That is the safest way to cross the highway because there’s usually a light there and there’s usually a sign to tell you when and when not to cross. It kind of makes up your mind for you,” Hovis said.

Cars are not looking for pedestrians, he said. They’re trying to be cognizant of the traffic around them and traffic coming toward them.

“A lot of times when a pedestrian gets struck and you ask the driver ‘What happened?’ They say, ‘I didn’t see them,’” he said.

That’s why the Highway Patrol also encourages pedestrians who must walk at night to do what they can to enhance their visibility from the highway.

“If you don’t wear something reflective, at least wear something that’s white or light-colored,” he said. “Some people even have a strobe light that can be clipped to their belt or reflective tennis shoes so they can be seen.”