On Wednesday Sep. 4, at around 9:21 p.m., a hit-and-run driver plowed into my dogs Sherry and Maya and me as we tried to cross the Broad Street crosswalk between the diner and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I looked left, there was no car coming, so stepped on the crosswalk with the dogs, as you have to, to get the cars coming from the right to stop. I was maybe 1/3 of the way across the road. Three or four cars went by and none would stop to let me and my dogs pass to the other side.
I then looked left again and saw a dark car, what might have been a pickup, but I can’t be certain, came barreling down at us. Surely, the driver sees us in the middle of the crosswalk, waiting for the cars in the other direction to let us pass. The car kept accelerating, the headlights kept coming. When I finally realized they weren’t going to stop, I jerked myself and the dogs away at the last second. Sherry and I just made it. Maya went under its wheel. The driver braked a moment later, I can only assume to assess the damage done, before accelerating again and driving off — a murderous hit-and-run that could have left me dead.
We are devastated to have lost Maya, a much-loved character in the community. I live with this image: Maya’s tail twitching, her eyes bulging unnaturally from her crushed head, as I bent over her weeping that I had failed as her guardian while on Earth.
This was my great fear, what I knew would happen one day.
I cannot tell you how many near-death experiences my dogs and I have experienced trying to cross Milford’s crosswalks. Every effort is a life-and-death game of chicken — you must step into the road of oncoming traffic, before any car will consider stopping for pedestrians, and many times they do not. They barrel through the town to wherever they are going.
We all need to prevent a child or elderly person from getting killed next. The crosswalks are badly lit, poorly marked, and there are no consequences for drivers who race through our crosswalks while pedestrians are actively crossing. Other places my dog and I have almost been killed, multiple times, are the cobblestone crosswalk leading down to the Waterwheel Café and the first crosswalk on Harford, as cars barrel down into the village from 84. I have written the Borough Council and have been informed that crosswalk safety will be a subject for discussion at their next meeting on Sept. 16, 2024, at 7 p.m.
I urge everyone to come and speak up about the dangers they have faced walking in Milford. Our crosswalks need to be better lit and clearly marked as pedestrian crossing zones, and we must ensure that the scofflaws are caught and held accountable. A single camera mounted to face Broad Street would have caught Maya’s hit-and-run killer.
Richard C. Morais
Milford