Someone Died in a Crosswalk on Lower Broadway. It Is Time We Changed Lower Broadway for Pedestrian Safety.

Paul Whitten
6 days ago
4 min read

By Paul Whitten, Founder of Nashville Adventures

Police and firefighters gather around a black rescue vehicle in the rain, with Nashville Fire text and flashing police cars nearby.

I saw someone die on Lower Broadway.

It was Saturday afternoon, the middle of a bright summer day, at Broadway and Fourth. A driver ran the light and hit four people who were doing nothing but crossing the street. One of them did not survive. Three more went to the hospital.

I have thought about little else since. So I am going to say plainly what I believe needs to happen, as a business owner, as a veteran, and as a man who was standing there when it happened.

We have to make this street safe. And I think that starts with closing Lower Broadway to cars.

What Happened

Around 12:30 in the afternoon on August 1, an 87-year-old driver from Kentucky drove through the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Broadway and struck four pedestrians who were legally in the crosswalk. Police say the vehicle failed to stop. One pedestrian was killed at the scene. Three others were rushed to the hospital, some in critical condition.

The man who died was a visitor to Nashville, here the way hundreds of thousands of people are every week, to have a good time in a city that sells itself as a place to make memories. He did not go home. Out of respect for his family, I am not going to use his name.

Mayor Freddie O'Connell spoke for a lot of us when he responded that day:

"This is an incredibly tragic event, and my heart goes out to the victims and their families impacted by this horrible moment. Right now, it's unclear why the 87-year old driver failed to stop for the pedestrians in the crosswalk. Our main goals now are to take care of the victims and to keep everyone else safe." (via NewsChannel 5)

Keeping everyone safe. That is the part I want to talk about, because right now the setup on Broadway does not do that.

Crowds walking Lower Broadway in Nashville beneath the neon honky-tonk signs at night

Lower Broadway at night, where the crowds and the cars still share the same pavement. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Math Does Not Work

Here is the reality of Lower Broadway as it stands today.

We have hundreds of thousands of people walking that stretch every single week. A lot of them have been drinking, because that is what the district was built for. And we run cars, trucks, and pedal taverns straight through the middle of it, sometimes with drivers who have no business behind a wheel, including people who have been drinking themselves.

You do not need a traffic study to see the problem. You put that many people on foot in that tight a space and then send vehicles through it, and eventually the math catches up with you. It has caught up before. Saturday was not the first time someone has died on Broadway, and it will not be the last unless something actually changes.

Cities close streets to cars when the foot traffic gets this heavy. It is not radical. It is common sense that we have been slow to act on.

Safety Is the Price of Admission

White sedan with shattered windshield on a city street; a man in a baseball jersey points beside a red truck.

I run a tour company in this city. Nashville Adventures depends on people coming here and having the time of their lives, so hear me clearly on this.

Safety is not the opposite of a good time. Safety is the price of admission.

If we are not safe, we are not quality. You cannot sell a world-class experience on a street where a visitor gets killed in a crosswalk in broad daylight. Every operator down here, every bar, every honky-tonk, every guide like me, we are all selling the same promise, which is that Nashville is a place you can come and let your guard down and enjoy yourself. We owe it to the people who believe that promise to make it true.

A closed, walkable Lower Broadway would not hurt business. It would protect the thing our whole economy is built on.

I Have Seen Enough

I spent a lot of years in the Army. I went to war. I am done seeing dead bodies as part of my job.

Now I work in tourism. I should not have to see any. Yet on Saturday, in the middle of Music City, I did.

My heart goes out to the family that lost someone that day, and to the three people who were still fighting for their recovery. Nobody should get a phone call like the one those families got, least of all because we could not bring ourselves to keep cars off a party street.

I am not writing this to point fingers. I am writing it because I was there, and because staying quiet felt like the wrong choice.

Let's Change Lower Broadway for Pedestrian Safety

So here is my ask, to the people who can actually move on it.

Study a permanent closure of Lower Broadway to vehicle traffic... or at least during times of high pedestrian traffic. Let's look hard at the intersections where pedestrians and cars still mix. Fund the crossings, the barriers, and the enforcement that a district this crowded requires. Mayor Freddie O'Connell, Councilman Jacob Kupin, the Nashville Department of Transportation, and the Nashville Downtown Partnership all have a role to play here, and I know there are good people in each of those offices who want the same outcome I do.

Nashville is the greatest city in the country to visit. I believe that with my whole chest, which is exactly why I refuse to accept that a crosswalk death is just the cost of doing business here.

I write and talk about this city for a living at Nashville Adventures. This is the thing I most want us to get right. Let's change it, together, before the next family gets that call.