Deadly Provo crosswalk closed

PROVO — Utah Department of Transportation officials have temporarily closed a University Avenue crosswalk where a Brigham Young University student was struck and killed by a car earlier this month.

According to Provo police reports, Rebecca Blazzard, 24, of La Grange, Calif., was crossing University Avenue at 1820 North around 5:18 p.m. on Jan. 7 when she was struck by a car. The impact threw Blazzard about 25 feet out of the crosswalk. Paramedics rushed her to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead. Blazzard suffered "a severe head injury and leg injury," the report states.

No charges have been pressed against the driver, 66-year-old George Bloch of Park City, but Provo administration spokeswoman Helen Anderson said police are still investigating. According to the report, Bloch was not speeding.

The death prompted a meeting between a UDOT engineer and local police from BYU and Provo last week, UDOT spokesman Geoff Dupaix said, where it was decided the crosswalk would be temporarily closed. In the meantime, he said, pedestrians should use the intersection at University Avenue and University Parkway.

"We recognize it will be less convenient," Dupaix said. "But for the

time being, that's what we'd encourage pedestrians to do."

UDOT officials are unsure how long the crosswalk will be closed, Dupaix said, but "it could be for quite a while" because officials will have to identify a solution and round up funding. He also didn't rule out any options.

"Having (the crosswalk) removed permanently could be the solution," he said. "That is still on the table."

Over the past three years, Provo police have responded to five other pedestrian-related accidents in the vicinity of that crosswalk, said Leith Ferre of Provo Police's Crime Analysis Department. One accident last year involved Sara Young, a BYU senior from Salt Lake City.

Young was walking through that intersection when an impaired driver swerved around a few cars in the northbound lanes that had stopped to allow her to cross. The car stuck Young and threw her onto one of the stopped cars.

"Miraculously, the only broken bone was my cheek bone," she said. "And I had a really bad concussion."

After that accident, Young would walk a few blocks south to the intersection at University Avenue and University Parkway to cross the street. When she heard about Blazzard's death, she was "shaken."