After Two Deadly Crashes, Changes Requested

After two recent fatal vehicle versus pedestrian accidents on Easton Road, Horsham Township has submitted a letter to PennDOT filled with recommendations on how to make the road safer.

The proposal states that Easton Road between Meetinghouse Road and Maple Avenue  - in the area of the two crashes - should be restripped to get rid of the shoulder. In addition, a center turning lane should be added, which pedestrians trying to navigate the flow of traffic could use to get to the other side, according to Township Manager Bill Walker.

The letter to PennDOT also included “four or five” other improvements - all of which Walker believed are cost-efficient.

and make the heavily traveled road more pedestrian-friendly have been on the table for 10 or 20 years, but “there’s just no funding,” Walker said. However, he holds out hope funding for the major capital improvements will be approved in the next several years.

As the former , just yards away from the site of the accidents, is redeveloped, Walker said, he hopes to have the new land owners install sidewalks along Easton Road. Over time, he hopes that other property owners will add sidewalks.

“The plan is to add to the system (of sidewalks) whenever we have the opportunity,” Walker told Patch.

The letter was sent to the state after . Walker said he hopes to hear back from the state in the coming weeks. In November, another man was struck and killed by a vehicle several hundred feet up the road.

Lt. Jon Clark of the  said his department is still working along with the county district attorney to determine if charges will be filed against the driver.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's office had no comment on whether the driver, who has not been identified by authorities, would be charged.