Draper Parents Concerned About Heavy Traffic After Fatal Crash Near School

DRAPER, Utah — A concerned parent is speaking out after a 22-year-old woman was killed while in a Draper crosswalk Monday, saying heavy traffic is creating a dangerous situation for both drivers and pedestrians.

According to Juston Rawlings, parents dropping off their kids at nearby American Preparatory Academy are causing unnecessary congestion that could be easily solved with a second access point on the school’s south side. However, the access point is currently involved in a legal dispute.

Rawlings and his son witnessed the aftermath of the accident that killed 22-year-old Elizabeth Bruschi Monday morning.

“My son and I had to have a quick conversation about how fragile life is, and how things could change very quickly and how sorry we would feel for that family,” he said. “It’s a tragedy what happened.”

Monday’s accident happened near 11740 South on Lone Peak Parkway.

“The road goes from two lanes down to one lane and right where the crosswalk is essentially (where) this pedestrian was hit,” Rawlings said. “There’s a lot of people that drive this road. I’m not really shocked. There’s regularly a lot of accidents here every couple of weeks.”

There have been 41 crashes on Lone Peak Parkway so far this year, but statistics show those numbers have dropped from 67 in 2018 and 76 in 2017.

Rawlings is concerned the heavy traffic has created a dangerous situation for everyone.

“As a parent driving there, I don’t want to be in a situation that is not good,” he said.

Rawlings thinks a second access point to the school off of 11950 South would ease traffic. However, there is a two-foot-wide plot of land located between the school-owned property and public access to the road. The owner of the property refuses to sell or allow access through the small lot, according to school officials.

“It’s between there and our fence to access that public road,” said Kevin McVicor, one of the administrative directors at American Preparatory Academy.

The school filed a lawsuit in 2017, hoping to exert eminent domain but McVicor said there is still no solution in sight.

“I just can’t imagine any situation where it’s reasonable for a city to allow or have one property owner retain two feet of property so another property can not be developed,” Rawlings said.

In the meantime, Rawlings he’s reached out to the Utah State School Board and Utah State Charter School Board.

KSL TV reached out to both school boards and is waiting for a response.

“This has become a game of keep away, it’s ‘pass it off to someone else, I don’t want to deal with this,’” Rawlings said.

We’ve reached out to the owners listed for the property and are waiting to hear back.

In the meantime, Draper City officials said they can’t do much to step in because this is a dispute between two private property owners.

However, plans have been in place independently of the incident to widen Lone Peak Parkway, according to city spokesperson Maridene Alexander.

“Draper City is currently in the design stage to widen Lone Peak Parkway from 11400 South to 12300 South next year,” Alexander said. “The street widening project will include two travel lanes in each direction, with a center turn lane. Currently, this section of the road has only one travel lane in each direction, with a center turn lane. As part of the project, the city will be adding additional street lights. We anticipate that the construction for this project will start in the spring of next year.”