BOISE, Idaho — This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Representatives of the Ada County Highway District (ACHD) and leaders in the city of Boise gathered Tuesday to commemorate pedestrian-oriented improvements at the western edge of downtown Boise that arrive about two years after tragedy struck the community.
The intersection of 16th and Washington, adjacent to Boise’s State Street Albertsons, became a target for improvement by the county’s highway district after Jadin Zurawski was struck and killed by a dump truck in August 2023. Zurawski, 16, was riding through the crosswalk on his skateboard when hit on his way to orientation for his junior year at Boise High School, located about a half mile away.
“It means a great deal to stand together this morning in a space that has long been part of this neighborhood’s daily rhythm,” ACHD Commission President Miranda Gold said, “an intersection familiar to students, families and commuters, and a place that tragically also became the site of an unimaginable loss.”
ACHD Commission Vice President Alexis Pickering said work to examine what needed to change about the intersection began a day after Zurawski’s death when she and ACHD leadership walked the area to determine what was and wasn’t working. Pickering said the existing fully signalized intersection with stop lights and crossing signals, which had been in place for 40 years, continues to be generally considered the safest type of intersection.
In the wake of the collision and walking the intersection, however, she said ACHD came to a realization that some drivers were not adhering to the traffic signal and instead looking ahead at the far busier intersection of 16th and State streets, located just beyond 16th and Washington…