10/05/2022 >SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Police have identified a pedestrian killed in a crash in Springfield on Tuesday.

>Ronnie Highbear, 35, of Rapid City, South Dakota, died in the single-vehicle crash.

>Officers responded to Republic Road and Fremont Avenue intersection around 7:30 a.m. Police say Highbear walked northbound across Republic Road when he was struck by a 2019 Nissan Rogue traveling eastbound. Police say impairment is not suspected in the crash.

>The crash was the 20th traffic fatality in Springfield in 2022.

A week ago I met this guy at the Rapid Roberts on Glenstone and Bennett, gave him a couple bucks. I had hoped he'd make it into a program.

I was walking across the street the other day in downtown and almost got hit twice in a single crossing. Just terrible drivers here.

The only reason I recognized this guy's name was because he's been on mugshots twice in the last week. I cross this intersection twice a day on a bicycle and it's very dangerous. Everybody is too busy on their phones to pay any attention to their driving.

My wife and I almost got hit by this blind old lady just south of the square the other day. We were already walking through the crosswalk when she rolled up to the stop, didn't even fully stop, and then started to drive directly into us. She stopped when I started yelling at her and she tried to signal like she couldn't see us. I told her to open her damn eyes or stop driving...

Living here I see a disturbing amount of people ignoring cross walks and just stepping into traffic without a care. This is not the first time it's happened

Unfortunately I saw the aftermath, and where the car stopped and the direction it was heading, was very clear that the pedestrian wasn't in a crosswalk.

Not trying to blame or talk ill of the dead, but unfortunately you're right here.

This needed mentioned. Too many people exclusively blaming our terrible drivers, which we certainly have, but we also have way too many pedestrians who would prefer to jaywalk than to take a cross walk.

I see it just about every day around the Walmart on Glenstone & Bennett, people jaywalking across rush hour traffic instead of using the cross walk 100 feet down the road.

Now the person driving gonna have to live the rest of their life knowing they killed a man. That's rough

same thing happened to me with a bus, i was already walking in the cross walk and a bus driver tried to run me over

Keep your phone out and recording whenever you cross. If a driver takes me out with their shitty driving choices, I'm going to haunt them for the rest of their lives legally with evidence of my death and a nice prison cell. Assholes can't drive in the DOC.

>To be fair, this city is shit for pedestrian crossings. Roads were designed with cars and only cars in mind. Most crossings are at traffic signals only, which are few and far between. The crossings are too far to be reasonably accessible to able-bodied walkers, let alone disabled travelers. This is a design flaw for both drivers and pedestrians.
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>I've also seen more drivers blow through actual pedestrian crossings (even those light up ones with the cross-walks) with a pedestrian visibly attempting to cross than I've seen people jaywalk in Springfield.
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>Not to say it doesn't happen that jaywalkers do stupid shit, but in instances of a car versus a person, the onus is on the driver with the thousand pound machine to show more care on the road.

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I 100% agree we need improvements for pedestrian traffic, but that doesn't necessarily refute the point of my comment which was that we will continue to have jaywalkers even with accommodations close by, and it's not always the fault of the driver when they are hit.

You can't assume this is on the driver just because "they're the ones with the thousand pound vehicle." There are reaction times and physics to take into consideration and plenty of scenarios where a driver simply does not have the time to stop before hitting a pedestrian that carelessly walks across moving traffic.

I'm not blaming the pedestrian in this case, just saying that we don't have enough info to put all the blame on the driver, which could have been out of their control and now be dealing with a tramatic experience.

I was scoping out springfieldmomugshots.com the other day and he was on there a couple times. Read the article and recognized his name.

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Driving east in Springfield lately at seven or 730. The sun has been so bright and low that it is blinding. I wonder if that had anything to do with this