City officials are asking their Monroe County counterparts to sign off on safety improvements at Thurston Road and Sawyer Place in the 19th Ward.
Last month, 6-year-old Ryan Grantham Jr. was struck and killed by a commercial truck as he tried to cross near the intersection.
City Council recently received a petition asking it to make pedestrian safety improvements to the area around the intersection. The petition was organized by the child’s mother, Farasa Brown, as well as leaders and neighbors from the 19th Ward.
“I never seen my son like that,” Brown said as she described holding her child as he took his last breaths. “My son never got sick. He was a fighter. He was just an amazing kid. He played football. He was an honor roll student. He was reading at a third-grade level even though he was just going to second grade. Like, he was an amazing kid.”
The petition organizers have asked the city to install well-lit, high-visibility pedestrian crossing signs at the intersection along with speed display signs to alert motorists to their pace. They’ve also asked the city to construct a dedicated walkway separated from the road.
In their petition, they also noted that in addition to Ryan’s death, there have been at least 24 collisions between cars and pedestrians or cyclists on Thurston Road in “recent years.”
During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Malik Evans said the city has started the process of implementing those traffic-calming measures. The city works through the county on all traffic issues, from speed bumps to signal lights, so it needs the county’s sign-off to put the requested improvements in place, he explained.
Council Member LaShay Harris added that some advocates would also like to see a stop sign at the intersection and a speed limit reduction on Thurston. Harris represents the 19th Ward and presented the petition to City Council.
“We have seen more pedestrian deaths in the city of Rochester the last two years than we’ve probably seen in the last 10,” Evans said. “And that’s across the country. So this is something that is very concerning to me, and I know it is to all of you here as well. We have to improve pedestrian safety, not only in Rochester but across the country.”
