Van hits a CC student in campus crosswalk

A Colorado College sophomore was hospitalized Monday after a van hit her as she crossed Cascade Avenue in the center of campus, Colorado Springs police and CC officials said.

Sarah Eckstat, 19, was crossing Cascade Avenue north of Cache La Poudre Street near Tutt Library, officials said. She was headed west across Cascade’s southbound lanes when she was struck by the van in the far west lane, CC spokeswoman Jane Turnis said. Her injuries were described only as not life-threatening.

It wasn’t clear Monday night if Eckstat saw the van or the van’s driver saw her before the accident. It also wasn’t clear if the driver of the van would be cited.

Eckstat used a marked crosswalk, which gave her the right of way, police Sgt. Jerry Steckler said. But that doesn’t mean students should blindly step off the curb before checking for traffic, he said.

CC crosswalks have increasingly become ground zero in a game of chicken between pedestrians exercising their right of way and drivers who don’t yield. “It’s becoming a problem around Colorado College, for some reason,” Steckler said.

Although drivers legally must stop for students in crosswalks, that doesn’t mean they always do, Steckler said.

“We’ve had a couple of these accidents down there where the students were hit because the drivers were not yielding to the pedestrians,” he said.

Last month, a CC student on a bicycle was hit by a car at Nevada Avenue and San Rafael Street, Turnis said. That student also suffered non-life-threatening injuries, she said.

The bicyclist wasn’t crossing at a crosswalk, Steckler said.

An average of one student is hit by a vehicle at CC each year, Turnis said. But no students in recent memory have been killed, she said.

“We do everything we can to educate our students,” Turnis said.

The college would like the city to make its campus crosswalks safer, possibly by installing big flashing warning lights or speed bumps, she said.

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