Holly Sue Engelman, 55, was crossing North Front Street at Vaughn Street in Harrisburg around 4:30 p.m. when she was struck by a car and killed, just four days before her 56th birthday. She died at Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center from multiple traumatic injuries, and the Cumberland County Coroner’s Office has ruled her death accidental.
According to PennLive, Engelman was using a marked pedestrian crossing equipped with an overhead sign and flashing lights when she was hit. A bystander reported that a young woman driving a small blue car struck her, and the driver was later quoted saying, “I really tried to slow down.” A friend of Engelman’s told the outlet that a separate car in one lane had stopped to let her cross, and that the striking vehicle went around it in the other lane, which was traveling southbound toward downtown Harrisburg. Harrisburg police could not immediately confirm the friend’s account, and as of publication, authorities had announced no charges.
If the friend’s account holds up, it describes exactly the kind of maneuver Pennsylvania law was written to prevent. Under Title 75 § 3542(e) of the state’s Vehicle Code, as recorded by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, drivers approaching from the rear are barred from overtaking a vehicle that has stopped at a marked or unmarked crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross. A related provision, § 3542(a), requires drivers to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians in those same crosswalks when signals aren’t in operation.
A Street Built for Speed, Not Just for People
North Front Street carries roughly 20,000 vehicles a day across four lanes with a posted 35 mph limit near the pedestrian crossings by Riverfront Park and the Capital Area Greenbelt, according to the same planning commission study. Local news outlet TheBurg has previously reported that urban planning advocates classify major Harrisburg arterials like State Street and Front Street as “stroads” — roads that combine high-speed traffic design with dense residential and recreational foot traffic…