Driver Strikes Man on Bicycle along Fort Worth Drive
Warning: Some images may be disturbing to people previously impacted by a motor vehicle crash.
Site of the crash on Friday, September 18, 2021.
A 59 year-old man has been hospitalized with a head injury after being struck by a motorist at the intersection of Fort Worth Drive and Collins Street. The head injury is not expected to be life-threatening.
Markings on the roadway depict the point of impact and where the car came to rest.
According to the Denton Police Department, the crash occurred a little before 10:42 PM on Saturday evening. The motorist was traveling southbound in the middle lane of Fort Worth Drive and was believed to have a green light. The man on the bicycle was headed westbound towards Collins.
It is unclear, based on the police report, whether the man on the bicycle was crossing the entire intersection or if he was attempting a left turn from northbound Fort Worth Drive onto Collins.
Police do not believe that driver intoxication or speeding was a factor in the crash. However, we know that speed is a factor in most crashes and determines the severity of the crash.
Image from Virginia DOT depicting how travel speed impacts field of vision, stopping distance, and injury severity in a crash.
According to the TxDOT C.R.I.S. database, this crash is the 21st documented instance of a motorist striking someone traveling by bicycle in Denton this year. All of these crashes have occurred along roads where the city or TxDOT have not provided separated bicycle facilities. Despite lack of accommodations or safe facilities, people traveling by bicycle, foot, or wheelchair must still use and cross these roads to access their daily needs.
Locations of 18 of the 21 people struck by motorists while bicycling in Denton so far this year. Legend: Purple = serious injury; Orange = minor injury; Mint green = possible injury; dark green = not injured; Yellow = multiple crashes. (Source: TxDOT CRIS Query Tool)
Among the crashes this year was a collision in August, when an inattentive motorist rear-ended someone traveling by bicycle on the four-lane portion of Avenue A, which was slated to have bike lanes installed nearly ten years ago. Instead of installing the planned bike lanes after a street resurfacing, the city striped the road with four car lanes and no bicycle accommodations.
Four-lane segment of Avenue A that was supposed to have bike lanes installed between 2011-2014.
The intersection of Fort Worth Drive and Collins Street, where last night’s crash occurred, is designed to prioritize fast movement of automobiles. There are multiple lanes, the intersection is wide, and the curb radius at corners allows motorists to maintain a higher speed while turning through crosswalks that may be occupied by someone crossing on foot.
Though the speed limit is 35 mph on this portion of Fort Worth Drive, many people drive 40 mph or faster, which reduces their ability to react to something unexpected and increases severity if a crash occurs.
There are marked crosswalks on only three sides of the intersection. People traveling outside of a car are banned from crossing on the south side of the intersection so that people in cars can travel more quickly and because the engineers who designed the intersection chose not to make it safe for people traveling outside of a car.
South side of the intersection of Fort Worth Dr. and Collins St. There is a No Pedestrians sign and no marked crosswalk. Blood is on the roadway.
The side of the intersection where crossing is banned has a continuous sidewalk on both sides of the intersection. The north side, where crossing is permitted, has a sidewalk on one side of the intersection but not the other.
The side where crossing is legal has no sidewalk on the other side of the intersection. The side where crossing is illegal has a continuous sidewalk on both sides of the intersection.
The lack of sidewalk on the north side of the intersection may tempt people to cross on the south side, where crossing in banned, in order to avoid the delay and danger of crossing the busy roads three times just to continue straight.
People traveling outside of a car must choose between the delay and danger of crossing the intersection three times to continue straight (green lines) or crossing the intersection once where it’s illegal (red line).
Because crossing is banned on the south side of the intersection, there is no pedestrian button to request a green light. Therefore, anyone attempting to cross there must cross against a red light.
There are no separated bicycle facilities at this intersection to protect people traveling by bicycle from high-speed motor vehicle traffic. Lack of designated bicycle facilities forces people on bicycles to guess where they should ride, which is often somewhere motorists do not expect to encounter them.
Failure to provide safe and convenient accommodations for people traveling outside of a car, plus the unpredictability this causes, plus fast driving speeds, are how we design roads to kill and permanently injure the people of Denton.
