MILWAUKEE — Christmas Eve memories are forever tarnished in a Bay View neighborhood.
“Christmas Eve was horrific,” Roberta Mowrey said. “It’s bittersweet these days because of what happened here.”
This past holiday, the family, friends, and loved ones of Jamie Hanson, mourned for the third year after she was killed while walking her dogs on South Howell Avenue.
The driver of that car ran from the scene and still hasn’t been caught, according to the Milwaukee Police Department.
Mowrey says she didn’t know Hanson but seeing the outpouring of love and support sticks with her. Right outside of her house, she says friends and family put flowers next to a light post near the deadly crash. It’s a gesture that brings joy to Mowrey, that people continue to keep Hanson’s legacy alive.
But just over 24 hours after this latest celebration of her life, Mowrey was disturbed. Another person took the curve heading south on Howell Avenue and barreled into her neighbor’s home, coming to a stop directly on top of Hanson’s memorial.
“It’s terrible,” Mowrey said. “Maybe it’s a sign or something that hey, something needs to really be done.”
Watch Shaun Gallagher's reporting via Instagram reel below:
Milwaukee police say they have not arrested anyone related to this crash either.
“It’s going to happen again,” Mowrey said. “We were waiting for it to happen.”
Even before Hanson’s tragic incident, Mowrey says the driving on this curve has been the talk of the neighborhood. She says there are seven crashes she can remember but there have been even more.
According to the Wisconsin Traffic Operations and Safety (TOPS) Laboratory, the quarter-mile stretch of Howell Avenue between E. Deer Place and E. Montana Street has seen 37 crashes since 2013. In a majority of those crashes (28) there was only property damage. There have been 10 injuries and one death.
That death, Hanson’s, led to changes on the street. The city lowered the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph and added striped bike lanes and high visibility crosswalks which narrowed traffic lanes to 10 feet. The Department of Public Works (DPW) tells the I-Team, lane narrowing is proven to reduce vehicle speeds on city streets.
The I-Team took a speed gun out to the area and found, while most follow the speed limit, there are still drivers who barrel around the curve in excess of 30 mph, 35 mph, and 40 mph.
Bay View is considered the 27th most walkable neighborhood in the city, according to WalkScore.com, scoring 73 out of a possible 100 points. The website ranks the walkability of neighborhoods based on walking routes and nearby amenities.
The I-Team found countless runners, dog walkers, and even a group of kids walking with their class back to school. Despite a sign above their heads indicating vehicles should travel 15 mph in their presence, the I-Team clocked several cars going at least twice that speed limit.
“Signs don’t stop people,” Mowrey said. “Lines don’t stop people. Can you see the lines in the winter with the snow? No, you can’t. There’s something about this hill.”
DPW provided data to the I-Team showing the impact of the improvements which were installed in 2020. Comparing a one-mile stretch of South Howell Ave. from Kinnickinnic to Oklahoma, during a similar two-year time frame from 2018 to 2020 and 2020 to 2022, crashes are down 19.4 percent and speeds down 10.5 percent.
According to DPW studies, speed can drastically increase the risk for pedestrians. In the City of Milwaukee’s pedestrian safety study, a pedestrian has a 40 percent chance of death or severe injury in a crash with a vehicle going 30 mph. That risk drops to 13 percent at 20 mph.
Ald. Marina Dimitijevic represents this neighborhood. She highlighted the improvements in this area over the last 10 years as being beneficial towards keeping residents safe. She says there are more improvements to come too, including a raised sidewalk this year near Humboldt Park and Parkside School, just south of Mowrey’s home.
But those changes may be too late to keep Mowrey in the neighborhood. After living here for over 30 years, she doesn’t know if it’s worth staying because of her safety concerns.
“I don’t know [the solution],” Mowrey said. “I’m not that smart. I think lights because a sign might be missed. They’re disregarding speed limit signs. Zoom, zoom, here they come. I don’t have a good answer.”
