Colorful teddy bears and a plastic butterfly brighten a memorial at an intersection in Andover’s Elm Square, honoring Sidney Mae Olson, the 5-year-old girl who lost her life in May when she was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer.
Sidney and a family member had been traversing the Elm Street crosswalk on their way to art class, while the walk sign showed it was still safe to cross.
The town made a set of changes to the intersection immediately after the May 9 tragedy, including relocation of the stop line and increasing pedestrian cross time. But much more extensive changes are on the way after a road safety audit, compiled by the town and state, was released last week.
“Sid was a couple feet away from being here right now,” Sidney’s father Eric Olson told the Herald. “Had the stop line been where it is today, she’d probably be here. Had the lights been where they are now, she’d probably be here. We are happy that this is carrying us forward, but we recognize, too, that this is a small step in a long journey.”
The road safety audit identified 88 potential safety enhancements to the intersection. Short-term improvements are expected to take less than a year, mid-term 1 to 3 years and long-term more than 3 years.
Perhaps the most important and immediate change, Olson said, is exclusive pedestrian phasing, meaning traffic is stopped in all directions when the walk signs are on. At the time of the tragedy, vehicles were allowed to turn across a crosswalk while a walk sign was showing.
Olson said he hopes immediate-term priorities, which the town anticipates being done within the next three to six weeks, are in place by the time the school year starts.
The Andover Select Board on Tuesday will be voting on several improvements recommended in the audit and whether to adopt a Vision Zero resolution, focusing the town on ending crash-related fatalities and injuries on its streets, while increasing safe, healthy and equitable mobility for all.
The board will also decide whether to rescind the regulatory speed limit on about a dozen streets and impose a new speed limit of 25 mph.
Eric Olson said he is hopeful these measures will be approved, especially the commitment to Vision Zero, a resolution that some towns and cities already follow in the Bay State
Crashes are up 30% over the past 10 years in Andover, according to data from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The Merrimack Valley town has seen its population jump by almost 50% in the last two decades to roughly 37,000.
Statewide, pedestrian fatalities exceeded 100 last year, up 35% from 2021, MassDOT figures show.
“We are hopeful that this will be a platform for something bigger across the state,” Olson said of the town’s road safety measures up for vote. “The statistics on pedestrian fatalities are going the wrong way. We think there are many, many opportunities like this.”
One issue left out of the road safety audit is what Olson said he believes is the primary factor in the crash that claimed his daughter’s life: allowing large trucks to drive around town when families are out in the neighborhood.
“That doesn’t mean no trucks ever,” Olson said. “It just means smaller trucks when you’ve got families going to school or going to art class or going out to eat.”
