LEWISTON — A community forum on pedestrian safety will be held in the wake of the death of a 13-year-old Lewiston Middle School student who was struck Nov. 3 while crossing a Main Street crosswalk on his way to school.

The forum will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at City Hall.

The forum is open to the public and intended to allow Lewiston residents to talk about pedestrian safety and and ways to prevent more deaths or injuries.

Meanwhile on Monday, Lewiston Public Works had two new pedestrian flashing lights installed at two downtown crosswalks: Park Street between Victor News and the parking garage, and on Lisbon Street by Kaplan University, Public Works Director David Jones said Wednesday.

The lights have rapid flashing beacons that pedestrians activate by pushing a button as they’re about to cross. The flashers are becoming more common in busy streets, and help get the attention of drivers to encourage them to slow down, Jones said.

Two more pedestrian flashing lights have been installed in recent weeks, on Lincoln Street near Rails restaurant and on outer Main Street by Strawberry Avenue.

“We put one out there because Strawberry Avenue is where the speed is starting to come down,” Jones said. “It’s an area that didn’t get much attention and we wanted to highlight it.”

Flashing lights for the crosswalk at Frye and Main streets, where Jayden Cho-Sargent was killed last week, are under consideration, Jones said.

The cost to install the system is about $30,000 per sidewalk, Jones said.

The four new crosswalk flashing lights weren’t installed in reaction to Cho-Sargent’s death; they’ve been in the planning for months, Jones said, adding the timing was a coincidence.

The four systems were paid with a grant from the Maine Department of Transportation, Jones said.

They are expensive because installing the flashing beacons is an involved process and foundation work is required, Jones said. The lights are powered by solar energy.

Safer crosswalks are becoming more common, Jones said.

“Three years ago, we had no high visibility crosswalks in the city, crosswalks with big, painted stripes,” he said. “Today we have 45 of them.”

The city has about half a dozen flashing beacons at crosswalks, he added.

More money in the city’s Public Works budget would allow more crosswalks to have flashing beacons, Jones said.

There have been but two other pedestrian deaths in the past year.

On Nov. 18, 2015, an 84-year-old man was struck and killed while walking at the intersection of Lisbon Street and Webber Avenue.

On Dec. 7, 2015, a 53-year-old woman was struck and killed while crossing Lisbon Street near the Lewiston Mall.

All three deaths in the past year happened after dark.

The forum is being called by Lewiston School Committee Chairperson Linda Scott, state Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, and Lewiston City Councilor Kristen Cloutier.

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