Pedestrian fatalities in EP three times higher than this time last year

There have been 17 pedestrian fatalities so far in 2016 compared to five at this time last year, El Paso Police said.

The most recent death occurred Monday, when 43-year-old Veronica Camarillo was stuck and killed on Yarbrough. Police said Camarillo was not using the crosswalk. The search for the hit-and-run driver continues.

Camarillo was one of the 12 pedestrians killed this year while not crossing at a crosswalk, police said.

ABC-7 spoke with a woman crossing Mesa Tuesday afternoon about the difficulty pedestrians face when crossing busy roads. “This is the hardest part. It’s like a mile just to get across the street, same way over there, mucho traffic over here,” said the woman, who only wished to be identified as Veronica.

She was referring to the long distances between crosswalks on Mesa, and other busy roads in El Paso.

Rudy Pino, with the El Paso Department of Streets and Maintenance, told ABC-7 more crosswalks can cause other problems. “It’s going to make the signal really slow and it’s going to congest Mesa, it will back up Mesa,” Pino said.

If you feel that a crosswalk needs to be added in your neighborhood you can call 3-1-1.