Tuesday’s fatality first pedestrian-involved crash at intersection in at least 10 years

Anthony Johnson, 36, of Kansas City, was driving south on Keene Street around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when he struck and killed Donald Meyer, 60, of Columbia, near Berrywood Drive, according to police.

Police said Meyer was in the roadway when the crash happened.

Online traffic reports show there has not been a pedestrian-involved crash in the intersection in front of Missouri University Women’s and Children’s Hospital since at least 2007, if ever.

Columbia police said they are still investigating the circumstances leading up to the crash.

Lawrence Simonson, assistant director of the PedNet Coalition in Columbia, said that area is catered more toward vehicles than to all types of transportation.

The city of Columbia adopted the Vision Zero policy in December 2016 to try to reduce the number of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030.

Simonson said the policy is still in the early phase, but the goal is to make Columbia safer for all modes of transportation, but to also make the city more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly.

Simonson said there are still a lot of areas of Columbia where pedestrians aren’t safe.