A family grieves amid pedestrian safety improvements at an intersection where their daughter was killed

Marie and Tom Allen were overcome with emotion when they heard about pedestrian safety improvements coming to an intersection near Mead High School two months after their 20-year-old daughter was killed while trying to cross the street.

“Losing her has reshaped our lives in ways we are still trying to understand,” Marie Allen said. “There is a silence now where her laughter should be. Even in our grief, we are grateful that the city and the district recognized the need for change.”

Spokane County Commissioners Josh Kerns and Chris Jordan announced the improvements Wednesday. The project includes upgrades to street lighting and a new pedestrian -activated crosswalk flashing beacon.

In January, Eva Allen was struck by a Mead School District bus while using a crosswalk on West Hastings Road. Allen was a former Mead student.

The flashing beacon will cost the county $25,000 and is expected to be installed on the crosswalk in two months, Kerns said. Both Mead School District and Fairwood Retirement Village and Assisted Living donated $5,000 to the project.

“We wanted improved lighting, at a minimum,” Kerns said.

The Allens agreed that the changes coming to that crosswalk are necessary but said it is painful that it took their daughter’s death to bring those changes.

Tom Allen drives past that crosswalk every day on his way to work and blows a kiss. He said it feels like his heart has been ripped from his chest.

Marie Allen was Eva’s stepmom, but said she raised Eva like she was a biological daughter. Photos of Eva, both as a little girl and as a young woman, are framed throughout the Allen home.

“Eva was autistic and she never let that stop her from reaching her goals,” Marie Allen said. “She had a lot of empathy and compassion for a world that didn’t often give that back to her.”

Eva had just finished her first semester at Spokane Community College and dreamed of becoming a teacher for people with disabilities, Marie Allen said.

Avista already has installed a new light pole on West Hastings Road on the north side of the road and moved an existing streetlight to be on the south side of the crosswalk, so it is more clearly lit, Kerns said.

“The Mead School District remains committed to improvements and partnerships that address the well-being of our students and the broader community, and we appreciate the County’s effort to improve pedestrian safety in this high-traffic area near Mead High School. We are pleased to support the County as the work on and around safety improvements continues,” Superintendent Travis Hanson wrote in a letter to the county.

Rob Allen, the co-founder of Fairwood Farmer’s Market, donated $1,000 to the project.

“I have a granddaughter named Eva Allen,” Rob Allen said. “Her death did resonate with me. That could have been my family and it wasn’t, but we’re invested in the safety on that intersection.”

Rob Allen said that Eva’s death was gut-wrenching for the whole community. Eva Allen died on a crosswalk that is frequently walked by sophomores who attend Mead High, Rob Allen said. He referred to the area as “sophomore alley” because sophomore drivers typically park alongside the roadway since parking at the high school is limited to juniors and seniors. That particular crosswalk always has been a dangerous one, Rob Allen said, but Eva’s death is changing that.

“She will not have perished without having a significant impact on the safety in our community,” he said.

It is possible that more will be done in that area following Allen’s death. Both Kerns and Jordan support expanding the 20 mph school zone in front of Mead High School, which currently stops before the intersection where Allen was killed. The Board of County Commissioners likely will consider the adjustment after a public hearing by the end of the month, Kerns said.

“This infrastructure enhancement combined with the expansion of a 20-mph school zone to include the crosswalk at Hastings and Bellwood represent meaningful steps toward improving student and community safety in that corridor,” Hanson wrote.

Rob Allen said he thinks the commissioners should also consider lowering the speed limit from 35 mph to 30 in that area.

“Thirty-five mph seems unnecessary,” he said. “35 to a lot of people is 40.”

After Eva’s death, the Allens are working to establish a nonprofit organization called Eva’s Guiding Light, with a mission to provide safety tools like lights, reflectors and visibility gear to help protect pedestrians.

“We hope that a small plaque may one day be placed at the crosswalk site,” Marie Allen said, as Tom nodded his head in agreement. “Something simple, bearing the words ‘Eva’s Guiding Light’ as a reminder of the improvements made and the young woman whose life inspired them.”

The Allens are planning to bury Eva in Salt Lake City once they raise enough funds to do so. Folks looking to donate to them can do so on their GoFundMe page.