Safety upgrades coming to intersection where college student was hit and killed
New safety features will be added to an intersection where a Howard University student was struck and killed by a car on campus. One Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner suggested these updates should have been done earlier.
“My understanding is that there was a safety lock about eight months ago, where these were some of the changes that they were thinking about but until Mohamed died, they didn’t actually implement them,” ANC Commissioner Josh Jacobson told WTOP.
On April 11, 18-year-old Mohamed Samura was walking on the D.C. campus, police said. The driver was traveling northbound on 6th Street from Howard Place at a “high rate of speed,” then tried to turn left at the intersection on Fairmont and 6th streets, mounted a curb and struck Samura.
Single Vehicle crash- 2700 Blk. 6th St. NW pedestrian struck non- life threatening. 1 person being transported. #DCsBravest pic.twitter.com/bcOV1OiWrC
— DC Fire and EMS (@dcfireems) April 11, 2024
Samura died in the hospital a few days later.
The university’s campus newspaper, The Hilltop, reported the driver was a faculty member.
DDOT will install raised crosswalks at that intersection and also install a bike rack at that corner, “where if someone were to speed and jumped the curb, instead of hitting a person, they would hit a bike rack,” Jacobson said.
“DDOT said it should be within a month or two,” Jacobson said. “It just takes too long and comes at the cost of people’s lives before big changes that are needed are made.”
WTOP has reached out to DDOT for comment on the project.