A version of this article first appeared in the Virginia Mercury.
On October 22, 2020, friends and family were at the intersection of Jahnke and German School roads on Richmond’s Southside to mourn the loss of 16-year-old Aajah Rosemond, who was killed by a driver while walking to the store.
According to police, a collision with a GMC Yukon sent a roughly 6,000 pound Nissan Titan spiraling up and onto the sidewalk, fatally striking the teenager. The evening news tells such tales with disturbing regularity, a product of Virginia’s rapidly rising pedestrian death rate. However, what’s behind the spike and how to fix it are questions without simple answers.