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Residents have complained for years that the crosswalk on Ederlee Drive where a woman was hit and killed last month is unsafe. Drivers come down a hill, around a curve, often too fast to yield for people waiting to cross.
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“I’ve seen them slam on their brakes, pissed off, because I’m in their way,” said Bob Kokol, who lives on nearby Lions Gate Drive and uses the crosswalk regularly. “Or I’ve seen them just fly on by and wave at me, as if, ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t really see you there.’ And then you have people who really don’t care and just blow on through.”
The N.C. Department of Transportation, which owns and maintains Ederlee Drive, recognizes there’s a problem. It has secured $350,000 in federal funding to install a “pedestrian hybrid beacon” that would allow people to push a button and activate a red light to stop traffic so they can safely cross the four-lane road.
But NCDOT says it won’t be ready to award a contract to install the signal until the fall of 2028. To receive the federal money, the state must go through several steps in planning, designing and installing the beacons, according to spokeswoman Kim Deaner, and that process will take two years.
In the meantime, NCDOT says it will work with the town on a potential interim strategy for making the crosswalk safer, Deaner said. That could include installing lights that flash when a pedestrian pushes a button, to let drivers know they’re waiting to cross.
The simmering concern about the crosswalk gained urgency after Soile Lazarz was hit and killed shortly after 7 a.m. on Aug. 26. Lazarz, 76, was crossing Ederlee to the Symphony Lake Greenway trail near the Koka Booth Amphitheatre when she was hit by an SUV.
Police charged the driver, Ayaz Pathan, with misdemeanor death by vehicle, failure to reduce speed and failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Pathan, 49, and the children who were his passengers were not injured and remained on the scene until after help arrived.
The crash prompted state Rep. Julie von Haefen to reach out to NCDOT about the crosswalk and to meet with residents about it. Von Haefen asked NCDOT to perform a “safety review” given the “demonstrated inadequacy of the posted signs” to let drivers know about the crosswalk.
“I will continue to press NCDOT for more information about installing a safer crossing for residents in the area,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
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The post drew a mix of responses, including from some who think the crosswalk shouldn’t be there at all, noting that there’s another one farther down the hill at the intersection with Regency Parkway.
“I drive it every day,” one woman posted. “They need to remove this crosswalk because it’s a death trap. There’s a crosswalk with a light a few yards away. Walkers can use that one. I don’t even understand why they put it there.”
Evan Glass thinks the crosswalk should be moved. Glass, 25, spoke at a recent Cary Town Council meeting about finding a safer location farther up the hill before drivers begin to gain speed coming down.
“I’ve stopped for people using the crosswalk and [seen] the person in the left lane shoot right past me even though someone’s walking their bike across or even someone with a stroller,” Glass said. “I just don’t feel like that’s a safe position.”
The speed limit on Ederlee is 40 mph. Deaner said NCDOT will speak with town officials about potentially lowering it. Kokol, the resident who uses the crosswalk regularly, said it would help if the town more actively enforced the existing speed limit and ticketed people who don’t yield to people at the crosswalk.
“When you come down that hill, you just start flying, you don’t realize how fast you’re going,” he said. “That little sign that doesn’t light up that says there’s a $250 fine for not stopping — nobody sees it. And they don’t really see people in the crosswalk waiting to cross. They’re not paying attention. They’re just zipping on down that road.”
Staff writer Andrea Galliano contributed to this report.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email [email protected].
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This story was originally published September 8, 2026 at 1:28 PM.