Hit by a car in her 20s, Columbus councilmember now pushing for pedestrian safety policies
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The day she was hit by a car, Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla believes it would have been hard to miss her.
She was decked out in red from head to toe, wearing a full-length column dress and pumps. The then-24-year-old was walking back to her car during rush hour from her job Downtown at the nonprofit City Year.
“It was a beautiful day, it was a hot day, and I was actually excited to get off work early because I was, you know, going to go be a 24-year-old,” Barroso de Padilla said.
The surface lots further from work were only $2.50 for the entire day, and she took advantage of it. But that day, when the signal told her she could walk, she began to cross the intersection of East Spring and North Fourth streets when everything went dark.
“I think I blacked out for a minute,” she said. “When I came to, I was on the ground, and there were people rushing around me, telling me not to move, which was also scary because I went into shock. I didn’t know what was wrong.”
In those moments of black, a driver had turned left on red -- from a one-way street to another, which is legal under Ohio law -- and struck Barroso de Padilla in the center of the crosswalk. That incident hospitalized her for days, and although it did not permanently alter her physical health, she said back issues and trauma persisted for years.
“After that, for a long time, I was really scared to cross streets,” Barroso de Padilla said. “That stays with you.”
Now 46, she talks about that day more frequently than 24-year-old her would have thought.
‘Our main concern is not the ease of traffic’
Columbus City Council ratified the second phase of its biker and pedestrian safety action plan -- Vision Zero -- in June. Introduced in 2021, the first phase included several efforts, which culminated in the city’s reduction of speed limits from 35 to 25 mph on streets Downtown.
The Vision Zero strategy has been around internationally since the 1990s, and according to its website, seeks to “eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries.” Other U.S. cities are looking to enact similar slates of policies that prioritize “vulnerable” road users like those biking or walking.
In Columbus, city officials say that can be done through redesigning roads or adding infrastructure that slows drivers down. The second phase of the city's action plan also includes proposals to build a minimum of 25 miles of sidewalks and shared-use paths and another 25 miles of bike lanes through 2028.
Ohio ranks relatively low for pedestrian traffic fatalities, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, but nationwide, 19% more people died in 2022 than 2021 in crashes involving someone who was walking.
Still, a number of Columbus adults and children have lost their lives after a driver hit them: near a Wendy's on Olentangy River Road in broad daylight, late at night on a walk home from work, and while trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Sixty-five percent of the city’s fatal or critical injury crashes have occurred on only 10% of its roads, Columbus Director of Public Service Jennifer Gallagher said during a June hearing.
Barroso de Padilla has largely led the efforts on the Council, which she sees as personal in more ways than one. She has made it clear that the initiative is not about bolstering efficiency for drivers.
“People were pissed that we changed it to 25 (mph), because they were like, ‘Now I’m going to go so much slower,’” she said. “What about all the people who are crossing the street? What about the one day that you were not paying attention … and you hit that person? Aren’t you going to wish that you were going 25, and they can get up, and be okay after that?”
The future of Columbus' roads should be made more efficient, she believes, by getting residents “out of cars and into vessels that are going to move more people safely and efficiently.”