A tragedy occurred in Layton Saturday night that leaves a family grieving.
The tragedy also points out some of the inherent flaws in the way the freeway was designed and it's lack of pedestrian facilities.
While we all know that the girl should have never attempted to cross the freeway but lets look at some of the problems created by the freeway.
For anyone familiar with the area you can clearly see how the freeway is a barrier between the two sides of it. To make it even worse the two nearest over/underpasses are more than a mile apart.
In addition anyone who has tried to walk along Antelope or Hill Field road now that they are extremely pedestrian unfriendly. Anyone who tries to cross the freeway at these two points are taking their life into their own hands due to reckless drivers and the way the roads are designed.
Today there is so much traffic along these two roads and the drivers in such a hurray they rarely pay attention if their is pedestrians in the way.
Even in Phoenix which is even more auto centric than Utah, they have put in more pedestrian bridges like the one pictured to insure pedestrians safe passage across the freeway.
The original freeway designers, Layton City Planners, and many Layton City Council members all had a hand in this tragedy. While much of the blame can be laid at people who are long gone, it just continues to show how bad planning can lead to tragedy years after it planning was implemented.
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