Citizens for Road Safety

According to the United Nations, Road traffic accidents claim nearly 1.3 million lives each year, costing some countries up to three per cent of their annual GDP, and are the biggest killer of five to 29-year olds globally.

Every seconds, the loses a: child. mother. father. sister. brother. friend. neighbor. colleague.

In the United States, the number of people struck while walking increased by an astonishing 45 percent from 2010-2019, with 2016 – 2019 being the deadliest for pedestrians in three decades, according to the 2021 Dangerous by Design report by Smart Growth America, using data from a national database of all fatal traffic crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. In 2021, drivers struck and killed an estimated 7,485 pedestrians in the U.S. – the most pedestrian deaths in a single year in four decades and an average of 20 deaths every day, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).

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Starting with Texas to Lead the Way for the Protection of Pedestrian Lives

Texas ranks among the top 20 states in the U.S. for pedestrian deaths. The Texas Department of Transportation reports that 841 pedestrians were killed in Texas in 2021 – a 15% increase from 2020.

Citizens for Road Safety emerged out from the death of Lisa Torry Smith in 2017, a resident of Fort Bend County, Texas. Despite decades of pedestrian deaths in crosswalks in Texas since cars were invented, killing or injuring a pedestrian in a crosswalk did not rise to the level of a crime until the passage of the Lisa Torry Smith Act in 2021.

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Lisa Torry Smith Act: Pedestrian Injury or Death in a Crosswalk now a Crime in Texas.

On June 18th, 2021 the Lisa Torry Smith Act was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. As of September 1, 2021, it is a crime in Texas to injure or kill a pedestrian or other vulnerable road user in a crosswalk in Texas. Now, the work begins to move words off paper – and to implement the new law and work to create safer communities across Texas: starting in Fort Bend County.

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KXAN Austin investigation looks at implementation of Lisa Torry Smith Act across Texas

On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, KXAN Austin aired the second part of an investigative series by reporter Arezow Doost—looking at the implementation of the Lisa Torry Smith Act, the new Texas crosswalk law that took effect in September 2021. The report features several families who have sought out Citizens for Road Safety for support, after not finding support elsewhere.

One family is Krystal Morris, who was struck by a driver while lawfully walking her rescue dog, Rudy, through a crosswalk. As Doost reports: “She remembers the warm June morning and clear blue sky — the calmness of her eclectic neighborhood tucked away in east Dallas away from the hustle and bustle of downtown.”

The intersection was a four-way stop. All vehicles are required to come to a full and complete stop, before proceeding through the intersection. KXAN reports that “Morris remembers repeating in her head” the words “He’s not stopping! He’s not stopping!” She screamed as she was hit and was thrown back, landing on her head.

Krystal Morris was hospitalized with a serious head injury—including a fractured skull. For two years, she has worked on healing, knowing that what happened to her was unjust and against the law. She wasn’t sure how she should proceed, or whether authorities would act to bring charges.

Citizens for Road Safety saw the case very clearly: she was struck by a vehicle while lawfully using a crosswalk and sustained serious bodily injury as a result. Under the Lisa Torry Smith Act, that is a crime. Citizens for Road Safety offered to reach out to the Dallas District Attorney’s office. The DA’s office agreed to look at her case and have now sent the case to a grand jury.

The Founder and President of Citizens for Road Safety Texas, Gina Torry, makes the point:

“It’s going to take district attorneys with courage and conviction across Texas who value the protection of human life to create new precedent under Texas law. The failure to Stop and Yield under the new crosswalk law is Criminal Negligence. The driver ought to be aware of the substantial and unjustifiable risk that exists—or can result in—the failure to Stop & Yield. The failure to Stop & Yield can result in serious bodily injury or death.  Any driver that fails to perceive this risk commits a gross violation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise when it comes to stopping for someone attempting to cross the street legally through a crosswalk.”

Criminal Negligence as defined under Texas Law:

(d) A person acts with criminal negligence, or is criminally negligent, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor’s standpoint.

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