Public demands action after Erick Munene Njue killed on Patterson

Presenter: Public comments at the Eugene city council Feb. 9 demanded not just words, but action after the latest killing of a bicyclist by a motor vehicle. Rhonda Nese:

Rhonda Nese: My name is Rhonda Nese, and I’m speaking today to highlight the urgency for safety measures on Patterson, specifically between 19th and 24th Street. Safety is certainly the theme of this evening, across all of our speakers.

As many of you know, and as several of you have mentioned, and many of you I’ve written to about: My incredible doctoral student, Erick Njue, was tragically hit and killed by a motorist while crossing Patterson on his bicycle two weeks ago.

This devastating loss has sent shock waves throughout our community. Erick was the best of us in every way: a doctoral student in special education, developing policy work to take back to his home country of Kenya in the hopes of improving the educational system for children with disabilities when he was struck and killed in the—

This is a section of town that we all know has three schools: South Eugene High School, Eugene Family Co-op, which serves children from infants to six years old; Roosevelt Middle School; as well as Spencer Butte (Middle School); Spencer View Apartments, which houses all of our UO student families, all of whom, and especially those living in Spencer View, are trying to cross Patterson to get to the U of O every single day without any crosswalks or traffic calming measures except for the light that’s down by the old YMCA.

The posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour in this section. You don’t see that sign until after you cross the YMCA. And in this section of 25 miles an hour, the driver that killed Erick was going 50 miles per hour.

Daily, I know I—as well as all of us in this room—see accidents like the one that killed Erick almost occur regularly. On these two-lane, one-way streets, one driver stops to let a pedestrian or a cyclist cross. Somebody coming up behind them doesn’t see them, goes around to avoid having to stop and slams on the brakes or has the pedestrian jump out of the way.

And in Erick’s case, he wasn’t that lucky.

Now, I am not an expert in traffic calming measures. I know that you are, and I’m excited and grateful that so many of you are going to be at the safety forum. But one thing that I know is that these tragedies can be prevented and that our community members need safety. Thank you. 

Melissa Graboyes: My name is Melissa Graboyes. I’m a faculty member at the U of O and a 15-year resident of Eugene. I’m here in response to the death of UO graduate student Erick Munene Njue. I’m here to say his name tonight, to mark his death, because his family is not here to do it.

Rhonda spoke earlier this evening as his advisor. I had the privilege of working with Erick for multiple years on Swahili language materials. I’m here to ask the Council and city officials for actionable next steps. I know that there’s been a trip traffic impact analysis requested. I know that there’s going to be an event on Thursday night, and I appreciate those steps.

I’m asking that this is not a slow process, that this is one that respects a needless death of a very talented young man who came from another part of the world, and unfortunately is going back in a coffin.

We know that Patterson Street, as Rhonda pointed out, is the YMCA. It’s Roosevelt, it’s South Eugene High School. It’s Spencer View Apartments with children, with young people crossing the street every single day.

The traffic is moving too quickly there. We really need to think about moving quickly, not just letting traffic moving quickly. We need to move quickly. We need to be attentive and responsive to this death in our community. We need to not just have meetings, but we need to make sure that our meetings result in a tangible, tangible, concrete action to slow traffic on Patterson Street. Thank you. 

Joshua Caraco: Joshua Caraco, I’m here to also encourage—well, I’m glad people mentioned the community safety forum on Thursday.

And I’d like to in particular encourage—since Councilor Keating and the mayor are going to be there—the other three councilors who have in the past expressed interest in something that I’m not allowed to talk to ’cause there’s already public forum on an ordinance on unlawful transfer. 

Luckily, I don’t need to because that won’t be taught about at that meeting because public safety experts don’t consider that, particularly, a serious transportation safety issue. 

So I’d love for people to come to that meeting on Thursday.

As we’re talking about camera technology, I also don’t really support broad-spectrum ALPRs, but I think speed cameras are pretty cool and they’re pretty different and it’s a lot harder for transportation to get them when it’s so easy for the police to get technology.

And it’s not really an efficient or fiscally responsible way to spend money when speed cameras are actually very targeted and very good at getting people for speeding. 

And they reduce our need for police to enforce speeding so they actually can save us money. But they’re complicated because they can also overload the court system because they are too effective at what they do.

So I don’t really need to use all my time. There’s a lot of people here tonight, but I’d encourage us to take community safety very seriously, and broaden our spectrum from simply talking to the police every time, which is—they’re a part of our ecosystem—but oftentimes, as the adage goes, ‘When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ Thank you for your time. 

Presenter: On Thursday, Feb. 12 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., in the Roosevelt Middle School cafeteria, BEST, GEARS, LTD, Shift Community Cycles, ASUO, GTFF, LiveMove, and UO Transportation Services invite you to an evening of connection, reflection, and discussion, looking to transform recent tragedies into collective work for a better future. Councilor Alan Zelenka:

Councilor Alan Zelenka: On Thursday, Feb. 12—this coming Thursday— BEST (Better Eugene Springfield Transportation) is holding a workshop and discussion on bike and ped safety in the wake of several bicycle deaths recently on Patterson and other streets. 

So that’ll be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12 at Roosevelt Middle School. So if you’re interested in learning more or discussing that topic, please go to that workshop.

Presenter: That’s Thursday, Feb. 12 from 6 p.m. to to 8 p.m. at 500 E. 24th Ave. in Eugene, the Roosevelt Middle School cafeteria.