NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — A cry for change and safety started by North Ridgeville students is pushing the city to take action.
16-year-old Violet Gustafson was on break from her job at McDonald's on Lorain Road at the time. Friends and family said Violet grabbed a coffee at the Starbucks across the street and was returning to work when she was hit by a car.
“This is just a whole tragic incident. There’s nothing more at this point to indicate this was anything more than an accident,” North Ridgeville Captain Greg Petek previously told News 5.
Petek said the investigation is ongoing, but preliminary evidence suggests a westbound car hit the teenager just West of the intersection with Lear Nagle Road around 6 p.m. Monday.
When officers arrived, they found the teen, and first responders began administering first aid. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Following her death, Lillian Rzpeka created a petition to install a crosswalk at the intersection where the teen was killed.
"I wanted to do this to honor Violet and for, you know, the people that care about her and also to be able to keep other people safe because there is just so much youth in the area," Rzepka said on Thursday.
As of Sunday night, it has roughly 4,700 signatures.
The petition was created five days prior.
On Thursday, the city posted on social media a response to it.
The City of North Ridgeville shares the community’s sorrow following the tragic loss of Violet Gustafson. Our thoughts remain with the families and all those affected. The North Ridgeville Police Department continues to actively investigate the incident.
Prior to this week’s crash, the city had begun work to address safety concerns in this area. We engaged a traffic engineering consultant to study the Lorain Road and Lear Nagle Road corridors due to increasing traffic congestion and safety issues. The resulting Gateway North Ridgeville study identified improvements at six nearby intersections to enhance both safety and traffic flow. These improvements will require phasing and funding and are still several years away. We are coordinating with ODOT and NOACA to advance this work and secure the resources needed.
We understand why residents are asking for a crosswalk or other visible action at this location. Public safety is our highest priority and it is important that any measure truly reduces risk. For that reason, we are working with traffic-safety engineers to evaluate the site and determine what short-term or long-term treatments would improve safety in a meaningful way. We have asked our consultant to expedite this review and to explore interim measures while larger corridor improvements continue to move forward.
The safety of North Ridgeville residents remains our guiding priority. We will keep the community informed as this work progresses.
News 5 spoke with North Ridgeville Mayor Kevin Corcoran on Saturday regarding the potential of a crosswalk, as well as other safety measures the city is looking at.
He admitted the Lorain Road and Lear Nagle Road intersection is the busiest in North Ridgeville.
Corcoran said it has seen traffic and safety issues in the past, but never to the extent of a pedestrian dying.
"Immediately after the accident, we engaged with our internal people, our directors, our city engineer. We reached out to our traffic signal consultant and also our traffic engineers that have been involved in this location and we started working on both short-term and long-term solutions to the issues over there as a result of this accident. Our engineers, the outside engineers have already indicated that they believe that a crosswalk is feasible in that area. That is something that we could do," Corcoran said.
He explained that installing a crosswalk is not as simple as painting white lines on the asphalt of the intersection.
"We're interested in doing this and doing it quickly and doing it as safe as possible for all the people in that area," Corcoran said.
Not only is there a crosswalk in the works, but Corcoran said more lighting, sidewalks, and crosswalk signage are being considered.
"I believe that the crosswalk can happen faster than sidewalks in that location. That might require a little bit more work and take a little bit more time," Corcoran said.
He said the city has never done something like this as quickly as they're currently moving on the crosswalk.
Corcoran was unable to provide a definitive timeline as to when it would be installed, but guesstimated it would be completed within months.
"I don't have a timeline as to how fast it will happen, but I could tell you that all of that is already in the works," he said. "Months is probably the longest that it would take. This is not going to take years. We'll be able to move on it relatively quickly."
The intersection where Violet lost her life is part of a larger project, too.
It's called Gateway North Ridgeville.
"There's no doubt that we can move faster with a crosswalk than that other project, but that's a long-term solution that encompasses a lot more than crosswalks. It really addresses vehicular safety more than anything else," Corcoran said. "My heart and thoughts and prayers go out to all of the individuals involved, especially Violet and her friends and family. It created a tremendous amount of pain with all of us and we'll try to address those issues as quickly as we possibly can."
North Ridgeville is expecting a proposal from traffic engineers in the next week.
Corcoran said drawings are needed for the next steps to begin.
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