Pedestrian Struck, Killed North of Square

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
December 4, 2007

The after-closing time, Sunday morning, fatal accident on Clay Street, north of the Woodstock Square, is certainly a tragedy. A bunch of friends head to a bar for drinking and leave their cars at home. That's smart.

But then they walk home - in the street. Apparently, walking "with" traffic, rather than against it. Even though there was a sidewalk. "The sidewalk was slick." So what?

This is not meant to excuse alleged drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident by the driver who hit and killed one man and injured another. But streets are for vehicles. Sidewalks are for pedestrians.

How were the pedestrians dressed? Dark clothing? Hard to see under good conditions. Probably nearly impossible to see by a driver who is believed to have been drinking.

The blood-alcohol content of the driver will be released by the Woodstock Police Department, and the BAC of the pedestrian who died should also be released.

About two months ago, at a monthly Coffee with the Chief, a question was asked about joggers who run in the street. One of the police officers informed the audience that there is a state law against pedestrians in the street if there is a sidewalk available.

The partiers belonged on the sidewalk, slick or not. Or, if they did walk in the street, they should have been walking facing street, not "with" traffic where they would not see vehicles coming up behind them. I wonder if the P.D. charged them with walking in a street. Had they not been in the street, any driver of a vehicle would have passed them by without contact.

At what bar(s) had the partiers been drinking? What was their own state of inebriation? Were they merely walking home, or were they horsing around in the street? And at what bar(s) had the driver been drinking, if he had?