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NORWALK, Conn. – Recreational athletes in Norwalk are saddened but not surprised by the death of a jogger Saturday on New Canaan Avenue.
Kenneth Dorsey, 44, of Norwalk was fatally injured by an SUV on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. in the area of 230 New Canaan Ave. The driver involved was a 16-year-old New Canaan girl. Dorsey was pronounced dead within a few hours at Norwalk Hospital. Charges have not been filed because the investigation is continuing.
Dorsey is the third pedestrian to be killed by a vehicle in 2012 in Norwalk.
A police spokesman said Sunday he believes Dorsey was running with his back to traffic. Runners are supposed to run facing traffic to watch for oncoming vehicles.
“Runners have to give themselves every possible advantage,’’ said Don Capone, president of the Norwalk-based Lightfoot Running Club and a runner in the city for more than 30 years. “By all means, stay off of high-traffic roads. There are so many distractions inside the vehicles themselves, between the TVs and the phone. You have to stack the odds in your favor.”
David Marcus, a member of the group Livable Norwalk, has been a proponent of more bike paths and sidewalks to make streets safer for recreational pursuits. “We have to make safe spaces,’’ said Marcus, who has been a Norwalk resident for eight years and is a frequent cyclist. “Then we have to think about the roads. It doesn’t make sense to have roads that have traffic going 45 mph in front of houses.”
Runners can take measures to improve safety, Capone says. The most obvious is not to wear headphones, which have become increasingly popular. No reports indicate that Dorsey was wearing headphones.
“We don’t allow them in our races, but people still try to sneak them in,’’ said Capone, who has directed races in Norwalk since 2003 without incident. “You yell at people, and they don’t even hear you. It’s insane. Personally, I don’t want that junk in my ear when I’m out for a run. I think the advent of headphones has made it much more dangerous for runners. They don’t think getting hit will happen to them.”
Runners and cyclists should also do their best to avoid high-traffic roads. New Canaan Avenue is a particularly troubling spot because it is narrow and well-traveled. “Tip one is assume all cars are trying to kill you,’’ Marcus said when asked about his top cycling safety tips. “The second tip is see No. 1. You can’t assume cars are paying attention. Stay very visible. They don’t expect you to be out there.”
Marcus, however, believes safety has increased for recreational athletes over the years. “It’s baby steps, but it is better,’’ he said. “There’s still a long way to go. Every time there’s a tragedy like this it propels a call to action. A good place to start is by contacting the Department of Transportation and asking for more sidewalks.”
Capone believes there will be immediate fallout at the club's Mother's Day 10K in May. "I think everyone will be much more aware,'' the veteran race director said. "The law enforcement will be even more strict with 450 runners on the road."
Comments (20)
I am not sure it's acceptable to say that the driver is the only victim.
the guy is dead for Christ sake.
Clearly when Tim gets all upset and wired up about this, he finally spit it :
the sacred road belongs to the drivers only.
I am sure Tim drives a pretty pretty big SUV too, that he hates runners, riders and everything which can slow him down on his way to Church.
We all know Tim. We have seen Tim in action many many times.
We are idiots talking about sharing his property.
It will not matter if you are facing traffic or light up as a Xmas Tree .. beware fellow runners and riders.
they are millions of Tim and they all want to run you over.
I understand what Tim is trying to say, I just think he is coming off a little harsh at a time when people are saddened by the loss of their friend/relative/co-worker, etc...
New Canaan Ave. is a road that really doesn't have much room for joggers or people to ride bikes on, so I do understand that. However, on the flip side of that, no one deserves to be hit and killed. I also read that that this gentleman was jogging "with" traffic. I believe when you jog on busy roads you should jog against traffic. This way cars can see you, and you can see them. Perhaps if this was the case this gentleman could have jumped out of the way. I am a driving instructor and this 16 year old girl could have been texting, talking on her cell, etc... These kids get distracted very easily and most of the time are not prepared to deal with certain situations.
My sincere regards go out to the family of the gentleman that was hit. Never take anything in life for granted. We can be here today and be gone tomorrow. Treat others the way you want others to treat you.
God Bless!!!!
Most everyone on this board should be ashamed of themselves. This poor 16 year old child is the truly is the victim here as she has to live with the fact that the vehicle she was driving killed someone by no fault of her own (at this point). I have not seen one of you heartless fools say one thing about that. How do you look at yourself in the mirror.
My heart goes out to her and her family.
One must wonder what Tim's relationship is with the 16 year old's family....lawyer? relative? neighbor?
Otherwise, there'd be no other reason for his merciless bashing of a man WHO IS DEAD, and his relentless baiting of the deceased man's friends and colleagues.
(BTW, Tim..."advice" is spelled "advice," not "advise.")
Once again Tim and his "know it all" attitude.. Tim, sat at 9:30am that road ain't that busy! U r a fool! It is sad and I feel bad for the girl but we all know she made a huge mistake! And I bet it was her phone. He wasn't running at 5:30 pm!! Ur not worth my time.
Tim,you are an idiot! Thats all im gonna say to you. Its a horrible tragedy but do you wanna bet the girl was checking her phone? It is said the girl hit a mailbox before she hit him.. Hmmmm Now how do you lose control of you car like that?! That street might be busy but you def dont drive so fast that you lose it like that!! Im sorry but whether the phone or speeding-the girl needs to be charged! They will find out!!
PS: Tim,the streets are not only for cars!!! That street is busy but i drive there all the time and you can manage with no problem when you have people on bikes or running! Especially when you pay attention!!
Humm idiot. Seems you are looking in the mirror..Funny other than from the morons on the web no one in law enforcement has said anything about the girl being at fault. They however did say the the jogger was running with traffic and not against as he was suppose to be.
Also maybe you are not able to read but chief Rilling also stated that New Cannon Ave was not for jogging. Hey I got a great idea since you feel the street are not only for car why don't you go take a jog up in I-95 and do us all a favor.
Fool starting his nonsense again?
Do you record yourself to listen to yourself over and over?
There are 2 victims in this situation.
Ones still alive.
Give it a break cheese.
Tarisita: all right-minded readers are with you.
Please take your own advise
What I'm about to copy & paste below, I wrote on another one of the articles earlier this morning which I addressed to Tim T. Perhaps Tim T. didn't see it as I see that he continues to keep repeating himself about how proud he is of himself that Chief Rilling agrees with his opinion:
To Tim T. ----
Will you, for the love of God, FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO?!?! Please!!
Do you not have anything better to do than to scan these articles about my friend, Ken..... and keep spewing your rants and your opinion that he shouldn't have been jogging on New Canaan Avenue? "Oh Oh! Chief Rilling agrees with me! Oh oh!" So... the F...what!! It was a terrible, terrible accident - regardless of whose fault it was! Those of us that knew and loved Ken are heartbroken over the loss of him as our friend, son, brother, uncle, cousin, companion, etc.
I would rather take this unfortunate accident and turn it into something positive. Let's GET sidewalks. Let's crack down on people that are driving distracted. Let's do what we can to help save the lives of others so that their families and friends don't have to go through what we, as Ken's friends and family, are going through right now.
Everyone on these articles has seen your opinion over....and over....and over again. We know where you stand on this. Can you please stop so that those of us that knew Ken can remember him as the sweet, goofy, fun-loving, crazy, awesome person that he was and not have to continue seeing your rants about how he was wrong for being out for a jog in the wrong place at the wrong time? Please?
Thank you.
Tarisita,
Please accept my condolences over your loss. Ken sounds like he was a wonderful person, and will surely be missed.
As for Tim ... unfortunately, his comments reflect the mindset of all too many drivers in our area who refuse to acknowledge their responsibility to share the road. As long as this mindset persists, our roads will never be safe for runners, walkers, cyclist or anyone not driving a car.
How about the mindset of jogger who think they own the road...I can tell you that on more than one occasion I have sen jogger running half way out into the road..It's called sidewalks or the track. Norwalk has plenty of places fro runners to run other than the Road,
"It was the fault of the runner plain and simple. The road is for cars and the sidewalk is for people..If a sidewalk is not present the answer is simple run elsewhere. If he were not in the road where he did not belong he would have not got hit....Now do you understand"
It seems chief Rilling agrees with what I have been saying all along.
Norwalk’s police chief agreed, saying New Canaan Avenue is unsafe for pedestrians. “That road, in my opinion, is not meant for jogging,” Harry Rilling said. “I'm not saying the road is not safe because there's not a lot of accidents on that road, certainly not a lot of pedestrian situations. But it's not a safe road to be a pedestrian. There are no sidewalks.”
It is easy to see that Tim T has his head up somewhere I cannot state here!
The real question here is... WHY DOES IT ALWAYS TAKE A DEATH to get ANY town or state to take a look at a very serious situation that is most often times swept under the carpet until tragedy strikes??
Tim T: What about walkers? Are they not allowed to get from A to B unless there's a sidewalk?
Get used to sharing the road.
This is undoubtedly a terrible tragedy for all involved and prompts me to remark on a terrible accident waiting to happen along School Road in Wilton on the mornings that an older male jogger chooses to run precisely at the same busy time -- usually around 8am -- that school buses and cars are rushing along the busy, shoulderless, sidewalk lacking road to deliver children to all the Wilton schools. While the jogger certainly has the right to run this route, his insistence on running at such a busy time when the narrow winding road is being shared by so much school bound traffic, is a recipe for disaster, and strikes me as foolhardy, if not selfish. I have driven in the same and opposite lanes of traffic, finding myself yielding to a near complete stop in order to avoid a collision with cars traveling in the opposite direction who have overcorrected into my lane in order to avoid clipping the jogger.One of these days someone is going to be a bit distracted, or traveling just a bit too fast, and we will likely see a similar accident scenario.
Hey Tim, then lets build them. Look around and see how many of our neighborhood streets do not have sidewalks and then ask yourself why pedestrians have to run in the street. Most likely it is because of our non-existent and at best fragmented sidewalk network throughout town. Pedestrians and bicyclists have just as much right to those roads as drivers do. Lets make them safer for ALL users. And one last point: drivers don't have a right to drive as fast as possible from point A to point B through our towns. We want safe roads and that means drivers (who are surrounded by a nice safety cage) need to drive slowly and respect the residents.
Joggers do NOT belong on the road, that is why we have sidewalks, tracks, beaches, parks and Gyms.
Mr Marcus' comment is worth repeating.."“Tip one is assume all cars are trying to kill you,’’ Marcus said when asked about his top cycling safety tips. “The second tip is see No. 1. You can’t assume cars are paying attention." Also note that to assume that everyone driving is sober even during day time hours is a fallacy.
Sidewalks are one solution but far better would be to have a trail built. Runners will use it far more than sidewalks.