Rutgers student death raises safety concerns

Traynor, who was majoring in nutritional sciences, was a sophomore at Rutgers. The Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office attributed the cause of death to blunt force. The Fatal Crash Investigations Unit at the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office is still investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident, and Hoden has not been charged.

The accident marks the second student death at Rutgers this academic year, after a freshman committed suicide earlier in the fall. On Sept. 22, Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after one of his roommates allegedly filmed and posted online video of an intimate encounter between Clementi and another man. Clementi’s death drew national attention to cyberbullying and prompted policy changes at Rutgers and legislative action at the state and national level.

In Princeton, improving pedestrian safety has been a focus of both the local community and the University in recent years.

At a Princeton Borough Council meeting last week, the Joint Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, representing both the Borough and Princeton Township, recommended designating portions of major thoroughfares as shared pathways for bicycles and cars, modeled after a project in San Francisco. The idea is to improve the visibility of bicyclists.

Though the most recent bicycle death in Princeton occurred more than three years ago, an average of 14 to 16 non-fatal bicycle accidents in the Princeton area occur each year, according to data provided to the committee by local police.

On campus, Streicker Bridge, which opened this fall, was built with pedestrian safety in mind. It spans Washington Road, connecting the new Frick Chemistry Laboratory and Icahn Laboratory.

That location has a history of pedestrian safety concerns. In October 2009, a male freshman crossing Washington Road on his bicycle while coming back from sports training was struck by a car, though he was not seriously hurt. In May 2008, University employee Matthew Montondo suffered head trauma after he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle over the same crosswalk, which is about 500 feet north of where Streicker Bridge was built. In February 2007, Theodore Christie, a maintenance assistant at Frist Campus Center, sustained minor injuries after a car skidded out of control and struck the Washington Road bus stop.

In 2009, John Streicker ’64, who donated money for the bridge in 2006, said in an e-mail that the bridge “will add an important element of safety to what is now a perilous crossing of Washington Road.”