Flowers tied with yellow ribbon to a street pole at the intersection of Mount Hope Road and Farm Lane are no longer the only physical reminders of the 19-year-old MSU student killed there Feb. 3.
Construction to build a sidewalk extending from the southwest edge of Mount Hope Road to the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education has started, capping a tumultuous eight months since Dannielle Brandt, a veterinary medicine sophomore, was struck and killed by a car at the intersection as she walked to her dorm room from the pavilion.
MSU police Deputy Chief Mike Rice said a pedestrian traffic signal provided by the Ingham County Road Commission also is slated to be added to the intersection.
Fred Poston, vice president for finance and operations, said a debriefing session with several people was held shortly after Brandt's death, and correcting the intersection swiftly moved up on the list of priorities.
"As we allocated resources to projects, this came up on the list," Poston said of the project. "We prioritized it and made it happen."
Poston said the delay in getting the project started can be attributed to weather conditions and the number of parties involved in it — ownership of the intersection is shared by the university and the county.
"You can't pour concrete in the middle of winter, and several partners were involved," he said. "If it's something the university totally controls, we are in control of the time."
He added that starting the project eight months after the accident occurred doesn't sound like a long period of time to him because "this decision was made closer (to the event), more like six or seven months back."
Two of Brandt's friends, April Fredell and Sari Gordon, said although the project has been delayed so long, they welcome the opportunity to keep others safe.
"They should have done it right away, but better now than never," Fredell said.
Brandt's parents have been active in accessing information about their daughter's death.
They hired a lawyer and private investigator to obtain the police and investigation reports containing information about the accident. The 69-page packet included sketches of the accident scene, photo logs, inspection of the vehicle that struck Brandt and an autopsy report.
It also revealed the names of witnesses Michael Thomas Galka and Angela Marie Tiberia, as well as the driver, Thomas Michael Penfield, and a complete description of the events that occurred that night.
Brandt's parents released the information to The State News on May 30, and it differed from the copy previously obtained by the newspaper through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. The State News' copy, which came from the Meridian Township Police Department, included entire blacked-out narratives, actions and identities.
Fredell was Brandt's roommate of two years and said being away from campus for the summer helped keep her mind off the loss.
"It's still rough," the hospitality business junior said. "I was home for the summer, and it was like, 'out of sight, out of mind.' But coming back to school was difficult."
Gordon said she avoids the intersection because it represents something too painful.
"It's really hard to put her into words," she said. "She had everything going for her. She's worth more than a crosswalk."
The Ingham County Road Commission plans to install a walking signal at the intersection but won't do so until next summer because of funding issues.
John Midgley, managing director of the commission, said details of the signal's timing and the lighting around the intersection will be addressed by the commission closer to the construction date.
The intersection currently has a traffic light timed in a way that one direction of traffic, going either eastbound or westbound, receives a green light while the other side does not.
The southbound and northbound lights don't follow the same pattern, said Thomas Baumann, a physicist at the on-campus National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.
Brandt was walking northbound before she died.
Baumann said the light's method has caused confusion to pedestrians and bicyclists in the past and possibly was a factor in Brandt's death.
"Very often, someone has to be injured or killed before they change something," he said. "I think that (construction) was long overdue."
Scott Rancour, administrative coordinator for the Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, said the flow of traffic traveling to the building varies from day to day because it is used for animal science classes and labs during the week and livestock events on 49 weekends out the year.
The night she died, Brandt was participating in an annual Block & Bridle Club event and probably chose not to wait for the late-night CATA bus service to get home, Rancour said.
Baumann, an avid bicyclist, said the Tri-County Bicycle Association launches several rides from the pavilion and has expressed concern before about the dangerous intersection.
Rancour said the sidewalk and pedestrian signals are welcome additions.
"It will make it more convenient and safer at the same time. It gives people a defined pathway instead of walking through the field and on the side of the road," he said. "It's a good thing."
