LAWRENCEVILLE — Neighbors living along Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville are demanding change and safety upgrades after yet another serious crash on their busy stretch of road.
“Ugh, my heart just stops. You can hear the car alarm there.”
Longtime Lawrenceville resident Ashley Simon says watching surveillance video of her car getting totaled makes her stomach turn — over and over again.
It was just after 5 a.m. Sunday when she woke up to a loud boom.
“It just breaks my heart. And makes me so angry at the same time,” said Ashley Simon.
She walked outside, and saw her car and the line of cars behind it heavily damaged after a driver crossed the center line and smashed right into them.
“I had my hands on my head … just, oh my god! Not again,” said Simon.
Simon says she’s counted at least a dozen crashes along Penn Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets in the last three years.
A deadly rollover crash happened in the same area back in 2018.
“Anybody that’s driving here, parking here, living here. It’s just so dangerous,” said Simon.
Ashley and her neighbor Daniel Pizzulli say at this point something has to give and they’re calling for safety upgrades.
They say the high volume of pedestrian traffic coupled with speeding cars has created major concerns.
“Something needs to be done … slow them down. You put a speed bump in. It’ll drop their engine,” said Pizzulli.
Channel 11 took the Lawrenceville residents’ concerns to the city of Pittsburgh and the mayor’s office.
They said, “The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure continually works with our communities to understand and respond to concerns to improve safety for everyone who use our roads — pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter riders, public transit drivers and riders and vehicle drivers. After working with residents, the city recently installed safety enhancements along 40th Street from the intersection with Penn Avenue down to the intersection with Butler Street, as well as implemented additional safety upgrades along Penn Avenue.
In addition, the City recently announced that DOMI will be starting a traffic signal timing safety improvement project along the Penn Avenue corridor with the community’s input. While DOMI continuously monitors crash data citywide, residents can contact 311 with road safety concerns so that it is directly sent to our traffic engineers for review,” said City Communications Director Molly Onufer.
Pittsburgh Police confirm an active investigation is underway into Sunday’s crash.
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