Safety campaign launched
Text 
1 Comment [ View ]By BETH YOUNG
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
LAYTON -- Mary Kelly-Hallum has to choose a day to have her leg amputated.
"The thought of having to pick a day that when I wake up and my leg is going to be gone is hard for me to wrap my mind around," she said.
In the last three years, Kelly-Hallum has had 22 surgeries -- most in an attempt to save her leg.
Her leg was injured when she and two of her children where hit by a car while they were in a crosswalk.
She said this moment changed not only her body, but the entire course of her family's life.
"Make good choices because in an instant, you could take a whole family's life away and their dreams," Kelly-Hallum said. "Driving and being on the phone, music too loud, eating, putting on make-up -- those are choices that can actually take away all my choices."
Kelly-Hallum shared herexperience at a Davis County Health Department's Green Ribbon pedestrian safety month kick-off Wednesday morning at E.G. King Elementary.
The accident in 2005 occurred as Kelly-Hallum was leaving that school's back-to-school night with three of her children -- all 11 or younger at the time. While her legs took the brunt of the impact, her daughter, Gracie, who was 5, and son, Conner, who was 11, were also injured.
"It looked like Gracie was going to die because the blood was pooling around her face and I couldn't see where Conner had gone," she said of her view as she lay on the road. "I looked under the car and all of our shoes are underneath the car."
Gracie had a concussion and road rash. Conner had five teeth knocked out, broke his jaw and a growth plate in his elbow.
Three years later, Conner, now 14, still recalls what happened that day.
"We had a totally different lifestyle and it just turned it upside down," he said. "It's hard to deal with.
" Pay more attention to the road. Pay attention to people crossing the streets. Know how it can turn people's lives upside down."
Between 1996 and 2005, an average of 35 people a year in Davis County were involved in auto-pedestrian crashes. In 2005, one pedestrian was killed and 27 injured, according to the Utah Department of Health.
"It's a traumatizing experience for both the pedestrian and the driver," said Randy Black, UDOH bicycle and pedestrian safety coordinator.
In addition to their physical injuries, the family has dealt with a lot of stress because of the crash. Kelly-Hallum's children have had to deal with their mother's many hospital stays.
"We have had to pay emotionally, spiritually and mentally," Kelly-Hallum said. "It will never be over for us, never."
In most cases, pedestrians crossing the street in a crosswalk have the right of way, said Layton Police Sgt. Mark Chatlin.
"At most major intersections, there are lights that govern the vehicles as well as the pedestrians," he said. "It's safe to say that if somebody is at a crosswalk preparing to cross, that vehicles need to yield the right of way to the pedestrians and allow them to cross."
Also, it is against the law for drivers to pass another vehicle stopped at a crosswalk.
"If one vehicle stops for a pedestrian and that pedestrian begins to walk thinking they have the right of way and then a vehicle passes, that is obviously a really dangerous situation," Chatlin said.
This summer, the Layton Police Department has conducted four Operation Crosswalk campaigns, in which plainclothes officers cross at problem areas to target crosswalk violations.
"The goal is not necessarily to issue citations, although we have issued citations," Chatlin said.
"It's more to educate the public on some of the crosswalk laws and the idea that they need to slow down and look."
Chatlin said there will be one more operation conducted some time in September.
Safety officials said pedestrians should only cross at crosswalks, make eye contact with drivers before crossing and when possible wear light-colored clothing when walking outside.
"They are so vulnerable to a vehicle when they are stepping out onto the road," Chatlin said.
Although the driver's insurance paid for the initial medical costs for Kelly-Hallum and her children, the accident has also left the family financially drained. The family's total medical bills are more than half a million dollars.
"I have to come up with approximately $4,000 to $6,000 for my leg and I don't have it," Kelly-Hallum said.
Kelly-Hallum hopes her story inspires drivers to be safe.
"I feel like they hear the message all the time, but it seems like crosswalks and things like that are easy to ignore," said Kelly-Hallum. "They are banking on the fact they have gone down that road so many times and there hasn't been somebody there, so it is out of their minds. Know where your crosswalks are. It's your responsibility to be aware that a car is as deadly as a gun."
Add Your Comment
Why do drivers "need to be educated"? Didn't they all pass the Utah Drivers License test?
Give 'em all tickets, I say. They're all breaking the law.