SOUTH SALT LAKE — Officials with the Utah Department of Transportation and South Salt Lake are taking steps to improve pedestrian safety near the new homeless resource center following a spate of crashes that left three men dead.
Over the weekend, UDOT installed new electronic message signs that advise drivers to use caution and watch for pedestrians in the area of 3300 South and 1000 West.
And on Monday, the transportation agency said it will take more steps to improve safety near the 300-bed resource center, located at 3380 S. 1000 West, over the next several months, including installing a new pedestrian-activated signal to stop traffic so people can cross the street; adding new lighting at nearby intersections and along the road; relocating a nearby UTA transit stop; and bringing in new portable signs to alert drivers of their current speed.
UDOT will also conduct safety-related outreach among the resource center’s clients.
As reported in the Deseret News last week, city leaders and the owner of the South Salt Lake facility, Shelter the Homeless, knew before the center’s opening that clients — many who come on foot or by bus, which drops passengers at a bus stop across the street from the center midblock — would have no designated crosswalk unless they walk farther up the street to 900 West, then back down a block to 1000 West to get to the resource center.
Shelter the Homeless painted a crosswalk on 1000 West — but did so without UDOT’s authorization, so it was removed, said Preston Cochrane, executive director of Shelter the Homeless.
Four crashes, three resulting in deaths, have occurred in the area since the November opening of the shelter.
The first was just weeks after the center opened, when police said a man who was apparently homeless was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while trying to cross 3300 South — a six lane road — near the crosswalk at 900 West. His name has not yet been released.
A second crash happened late Christmas night, when a vehicle traveling north on 300 West struck 43-year-old Randall Stewart, who was in a wheelchair in the roadway near 3400 South. He was hospitalized in critical condition but later died.
Another crash that Friday left a 29-year-old man with injuries after he was hit by a pickup truck in the middle of the road near 3300 South at 200 West. That same day, 67-year-old Duane Nebeker was killed while walking across 3300 South, across all six lanes of traffic, near 1000 West, directly across the street from the resource center.
All of the men who were killed are believed to have been homeless, according to South Salt Lake police spokesman Gary Keller.
Until all the improvements are made, resource center officials and South Salt Lake police are urging clients at the resource center to stay on the sidewalks, use the 900 West crosswalk and to not cross 3300 South illegally.
The South Salt Lake Police Department has also increased patrols and enforcement efforts to prevent illegal street crossings, Keller said.