Dallas police confirmed the death of a teenager who was struck by a driver Friday morning on E. Ledbetter Drive near Marsalis Avenue.
A Dallas ISD spokeswoman confirmed the teen was a student at Boude Storey High School and was walking to school when the crash occurred shortly before 8 a.m.
Authorities said the teen was transported to a local hospital where he died from his injuries and the driver of the car remained at the scene and is cooperating with police.
East Ledbetter Drive is part of Loop 12, a highway that is the deadliest for traffic accidents in the city of Dallas, according to an NBC 5 analysis of TxDOT crash data.
For months, NBC 5’s journalistic investigation, “Driven to Death” has highlighted the dangers on the road. Safety experts have said the road needs to be changed to reduce high-speed traffic on the road, which is being transformed from a motorway into a street.
NBC 5 reports have also documented a lack of safe places for pedestrians to cross, causing many to seek refuge in narrow medians as they try to get to the other side of the street. Some stretches of road also lack modern curbs separating sidewalks from the street. It’s unclear if any of those changes would have helped prevent Friday’s crash, as police said it was early in their investigation.
After NBC5 exposed the high number of traffic deaths on the road, state Sen. Royce West convened a community meeting in May, bringing together the region’s top transportation officials.
They have all pledged to quickly address the dangers. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council is expected to vote to reduce the speed limit on sections of Loop 12, including parts of E. Ledbetter Drive.
A review of TxDOT crash data shows there have been 15 fatal crashes in the first 9 months of 2024, making it the city’s deadliest yet this year. Six of the dead are pedestrians, including the student on Friday.
