A pedestrian was struck and killed by an SUV in south Kansas City late Thursday, August 9.
The crash happened shortly after 10:00 p.m. at the intersection of Longview Road and Applewood Drive. Police say the driver was heading westbound when they struck a pedestrian who was crossing the street.
The driver stopped and waited for police to arrive. The victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was identified as 60-year-old Lance R. Shope of Kansas City.
“We want to start by offering our sincere condolences to the family of Mr. Shope,” noted BikeWalkKC executive director Eric Rogers. “It’s good the driver stopped, but Lance has unfortunately become another victim of our inability and unwillingness as a city to sufficiently support transportation options beyond the automobile.”
“This appears to be a clear failure of the built environment,” stated Eric Bunch, BikeWalkKC’s policy director. “The most obvious problem with this intersection is that there are no crosswalks, even though there are bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the road.”
As Bunch continued, “Instead of only mourning the death of Mr. Shope, we need to use this as an opportunity to fix this problem so another pedestrian doesn’t have to put themselves in danger to accomplish the simple task of crossing the street.”
Mr. Shope’s death marks the second pedestrian fatality in the metro since Saturday, August 4, when Richard Sereres was struck and killed in Gladstone and the third in the past four weeks, beginning when Haley Elizabeth Hackett was struck and later died from a crash at 43rd and Main in KCMO.
As BikeWalkKC has stated in the past, what deserves the brunt of the blame for these crashes is the culture that values car traffic efficiency over the safety of human lives.
For more information, contact Karen Campbell, director of development and communications, at (816) 205-7056 (ext. 2) or by email at karen.campbell@bikewalkkc.org.
BikeWalkKC believes that crashes are not accidents and clothing is not an excuse.