Cape residents call for crosswalk at Kingshighway/Cape Rock; mayor directs to MoDOT

The Rev. Renita Green carried a single, slightly worn boot into the final Cape Girardeau City Council meeting of the year Monday night.

The shoe’s owner remained hospitalized in a St. Louis intensive care unit after being struck by a vehicle and sustaining life-threatening injuries Friday night, but Green and other concerned citizens spoke on her behalf by expressing the need for construction of a crosswalk at the intersection of North Cape Rock Drive and North Kingshighway/U.S. 61.

Mayor Bob Fox listened intently during the public comment period, but ultimately said the city council would be unable to alter the intersection because U.S. 61 is a state highway and not a city street.

The highway is controlled by the Missouri Department of Transportation, and the mayor encouraged the crosswalk advocates to take their concerns directly to the department during the public comments section of a Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization Board of Directors meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau.

“I wish I could just snap my fingers and say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ But it doesn’t work that way,” Fox said after the meeting. “Even if the city had the money and we wanted to do it, we couldn’t because it’s a state highway — and we have to go through the process.”

During public discussion of the issue, deputy city manager Molly Mehner emphasized the importance of gathering data on traffic at the intersection before improvements could be made.

According to Mehner, the city applied for and received a Traffic Engineering Assistance Program (TEAP) grant from MoDOT to collect traffic data at the intersection, but the grant focused mainly on the parts of the intersection closer to Arena Park.

Fox said the city council would do its best to reiterate the citizens’ concerns to MoDOT, but noted the process, if approved, would be lengthy.

Green agreed short- and long-term solutions would be required to properly resolve the lack of pedestrian access, but encouraged city council members to not focus exclusively on the cost-benefits of adding a crosswalk to the intersection.

“It’s just hard for me not to encourage you to ask the question: When looking at cost-benefit, how much is a person’s life worth?” Green said.

The pedestrian struck Friday was transported to Saint Francis Medical Center by ambulance with life-threatening injuries, according to Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Joey Hann.

A post from the Facebook page for The People’s Shelter, founded by Green, identified the victim as “our friend Crystal” on Friday night, and stated two officials with the shelter were traveling to a St. Louis hospital where the victim was being treated. Updates on Crystal’s condition were posted to the page in the following days.

A post at 3:25 a.m. Saturday stated Crystal’s injuries included multiple fractures in both of her legs and an arm. An update later in the afternoon stated the victim had multiple skull fractures and bleeding on her brain.

Green said a CT scan indicated Crystal’s brain had begun healing as of 2 p.m. Sunday, but she was still hospitalized in the intensive care unit.

Crystal told doctors she was “walking to church” when she was struck by the vehicle, Green said.

St. Andrew Lutheran Church is on the corner of intersection where she was struck. According to the church’s website, the church hosts a meal from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month to offer “a free, warm meal to those who have the need.”

Green also mentioned having received multiple messages asking for information about Crystal, and asked the public to not seek personal information about Crystal or attempt to visit her.

“We don’t need personal information to pray, to serve, to love,” Green wrote in the post.

After the meeting, Green said in the days since the accident, she has seen an outpouring of support and heard many memories of Crystal.

“We get really passionate about things in the moment, but then our memories start to fade as life gets busy,” Green said. “[I encourage] those who feel passionate about this now [to also] feel passionate in one month, two months and three months down the road — and don’t let up until the change comes.”