Five pedestrians killed in 11 months on less than a mile of Loop 12, prompting calls for change (2024)

After a dozen stretches of Loop 12 were pegged as being among the worst locations for traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the city of Dallas, a man whose sister was killed crossing that same roadway is calling on leaders to take action to save lives.

That deadly crash happened on a less-than-one-mile section of Loop 12 where five pedestrians have been struck and killed in just 11 months, according to TxDOT records reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates.

A 2022 City of Dallas study found the 12 worst sections of road for fatal and serious crashes were all on Loop 12. Plotting those locations on a map reveals a loop of death and injury. NBC 5 Investigates searched TxDOT crash data and discovered at least 479 serious injury crashes and 105 deadly crashes on Loop 12 in less than five years. That includes more recent data than the city analyzed in its 2022 study.

Fatal and Serious Injury Crashes on Dallas Stretch of Loop 12

Using data from the Texas Department of Transportation, NBC 5 Investigates mapped every fatal and serious injury crash on Loop 12 in the City of Dallas. TxDOT captures data from Texas Peace Officer's Crash Reports (CR-3). TxDOT requires law enforcement to report "Any crash involving a motor vehicle in transport that occurs or originates on a traffic way, results in injury to or death of any person, or damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000." The data compiled in this map is from Jan. 1, 2019 through Dec 31, 2023.**

Circling Dallas, Loop 12 goes by many names. East of downtown, going north from Interstate 30, it's known as Buckner Boulevard. Going west from there, it's known as Northwest Highway as it passes just north of Dallas Love Field Airport. After crossing Interstate 35E, the road then briefly dips into Irving where it heads south as a freeway known as Walton Walker Boulevard. The freeway continues south, past Texas 183 and Interstate 30. South of I-30, Loop 12 leaves the freeway and splits off to the east as Ledbetter Drive before later becoming Great Trinity Forest Way.

On one stretch of Loop 12 where Ledbetter turns into Great Trinity Forest, NBC 5 Investigates identified a location where pedestrians are dying again. That's where Arthur Fleming lost his sister and where the Fleming family said the city and state must work together to make the loop safer, especially along Ledbetter.

"I'm going to do what I can to make sure that the killing stops over here in this area," Fleming said.

Arthur's sister Betty Sue Fleming was 77 when she was killed along the 2800 block of Ledbetter Drive. She was walking to the store on a November evening when she was hit while crossing the street.

"This area needs to be modified to be more pedestrian friendly. Right now, it's not pedestrian-friendly," Fleming said.

NBC 5 Investigates searched TxDOT crash records and discovered Betty Sue was the fifth pedestrian killed in just 11 months of 2023 on that stretch of Ledbetter near Bonnie View Road. TxDOT records also showed that over the last decade, 11 pedestrians were killed within less than a mile of where Betty Sue was killed.

A police report said Betty Sue caused the crash because she was not in a crosswalk. When that happens, police typically say the pedestrian "failed to yield the right of way to the car," but some road safety advocates said that finding often ignores other important questions about whether the street was designed to give pedestrians safe, convenient places to cross.

"You have the police saying, 'Oh, they were jaywalking, they broke the rules.' Whereas, really the responsibility should largely fall on the road designers, in my view," said David Zipper, an urban planner and subject matter expert on transportation policy and road safety.

Zipper walked part of Loop 12 with NBC 5 Investigates in the fall of 2023 and was stunned to see a lot of pedestrian traffic and no mid-block crosswalks near bus stops, apartment buildings, or stores. The lack of crosswalks left pedestrians to walk long distances to find a crosswalk or risk crossing the street elsewhere.

Without a safe, easy place to cross, Zipper said traffic engineers should expect people will take their chances and cross in the middle of the street.

"It's the road designers who have really failed in the beginning. And I would say it's still a failure that it hasn't been fixed yet because this road looks like it's been here for decades," Zipper said.

Not far from where Betty Sue Fleming died, there's a bus stop where our cameras captured a constant flow of traffic right through the middle of the street. Searching this location on Google Maps also reveals images dating back years of pedestrians crossing mid-block.

Traffic planners sometimes call that spot "the desire line," a place where it's clear people instinctively want to cross the street.

Some cities, like Austin, are installing more mid-block crosswalks with pedestrian-activated stop lights in places where pedestrians have been killed.

Arthur Fleming wonders why it hasn't happened on Loop 12 in Southern Dallas, where so many people have died.

"I see neglect. I see community neglect. I see a not caring bureaucracy," said Fleming.

Because it's both a street and a highway, there are two bureaucracies in charge of Loop 12 -- the city of Dallas and the Texas Department of Transportation. Records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates showed the city and TxDOT have been aware of pedestrian dangers on the loop for years.

Two years ago, the city's Vision Zero road safety plan identified the section of Ledbetter where Betty Sue Fleming died as one of the city's top five locations for pedestrian deaths and serious injuries. In 2019, a TxDOT study also raised concerns about pedestrian safety on another nearby section of Loop 12 further east where at least five other pedestrians have been killed.

The report said engineers observed, "generally aggressive vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian behaviors" and "a lot of 'jaywalking' along with some vehicular disregard for pedestrians." They found that "most pedestrians were observed to be crossing Loop 12 to access the DART bus stops." And, the report mentions "…possible solutions involved the installation of crosswalks, adding pedestrian bridges, (OR) implementing pedestrians’ signals, such as Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons."

So why haven't pedestrian beacons and mid-block crosswalks been installed where so many deaths have occurred? One possible answer can be found deep in the 2019 TxDOT report. It says, "TxDOT installs Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons only on roadways with speed limits of 40 mph or lower."

On Loop 12, the state set the speed limit between 40 mph and 50 mph. So TxDOT would have to conduct traffic studies and recommend a lower speed limit before any mid-block crossings could be installed.

Last fall, Kathryn Rush, the City of Dallas's Chief Transportation Planner, said the city would like to reduce speeds on the loop and install mid-block crossings but that they can't with the 40-mph speed limit restriction.

"We could put in a bridge, but that's very expensive. A lot of times people don't use them. So it has resulted in taking away some of the tools in the toolbox," Rush said.

For months, NBC 5 Investigates has asked to interview Ceason Clemens, TxDOT's Dallas District engineer who oversees the region's state roads. Those requests for an interview have been declined but TxDOT did provide a statement that said they conducted a speed study on one section of Loop 12 over the summer and that it was still being discussed with the city to determine if any revisions to the current speed limit were needed.

TxDOT told NBC 5 Investigates, "The department has spent $15 million on projects along Loop 12/Buckner/Northwest Highway/Great Trinity Forest Way since 2015" including upgrading traffic signals and installing sidewalks. A spokesman said, "TxDOT will continue to work with the city of Dallas and DART to improve pedestrian safety."

Arthur Fleming wants to see more urgency.

"So, we're going to try to wake them up and see if we can't make them care or at least respond to what we're talking about," Fleming said.

Fleming, who once headed Dallas' NAACP chapter said he plans to push city officials to advocate for more rapid changes. In a statement the city's transportation director told NBC 5 Investigates they were currently evaluating opportunities for improvements in coordination with partnering agencies including TxDOT and DART.

The city is also considering bond funding to improve street lighting on six sections of Loop 12, but Fleming believes it will take more than lighting to make the loop safer for those living in Southern Dallas.

"That's what I'm going to do to try to organize to go down and see if we can get something done about it citywide but, particularly over here," Fleming said.

TxDOT's 2019 Loop 12 study found 85% of drivers in the section they studied travel above the speed limit. Obviously, higher speeds also make pedestrian crashes more deadly. TxDOT said more speed enforcement is needed but road safety advocates said police can't be there all the time and that changing the physical design of the road is often more effective at calming speeds.