Traffic moves Friday along Main Street in Lewiston near the intersection of Park Street. Main Street between Sabattus Street and the Auburn line has been identified as a high-injury corridor where the city of Lewiston is looking to make improvements. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — Every few years there are a string of pedestrian accidents or fatalities in Lewiston that seemingly force the issue back into the public eye.

Within a 24-hour span in June 2023, a pedestrian was killed along Main Street and a hit-and-run occurred on Lisbon Street. Six months earlier, two pedestrian accidents, including one death, had occurred in a single night.

This week, city officials saw some of the work that’s taken place since that string of tragedies to identify and eventually improve several dangerous corridors in the city, both for pedestrians and motorists.

A study called “Safe Streets 4 All” and an accompanying Lewiston Safety Action Plan ranked the top 5 areas of concern — or “high injury networks” — based on crash data, and officials will soon be asked to adopt the plan in hopes of making more safety improvements.

At the top of the list is a section of Main Street between the Auburn line and Sabattus Street, where according to the study, there were 43 crashes that resulted in injury, including three fatal. The data used in the study reflects a 10-year period between 2012-2023, so a small number of the most recent fatalities has not been included.

Jason Ready, a traffic consultant with civil engineering firm VHB, which conducted the analysis, said intersection crashes in particular are a top issue for Lewiston, with speed being one of the biggest factors. He said the issue is basic physics: vehicles going faster produce more energy and make crashes more likely to result in injury.

The study data says there were 9,432 crashes in Lewiston in the 10-year span. While Ready said it’s good news that roughly 75% of those crashes didn’t result in injury, 7,880 of the crashes took place at intersections, highlighting the need to take a closer look at those where a lot of crashes occur.

City staff said two projects to jump-start the larger effort are slated to begin next month along Main Street.

Public Works Director Kevin Gagne told the council that there’s momentum behind the effort, and that once the plan is finalized in the next month or so, “we’re not putting it on a shelf.”

The study references a “KAB” system used to categorize the severity of injuries sustained by individuals involved in a crash, with “K” representing fatal injury, “A” representing suspected serious injury, “B” representing suspected minor injury.

The second-ranked traffic corridor is Sabattus Street between East Avenue and Pond Road, where according to the study, there were 86 crashes resulting in injury — 30 in the “A” category and 56 in “B.”

Traffic moves Friday along Lisbon Street in Lewiston near the intersection of Bleachery Street. Lisbon Street between Adams and East avenues has been identified as a high-injury corridor by the city of Lewiston. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

The third ranked is Lisbon Street between Adams and East avenues, where there were 18 crashes resulting in injury and two fatalities.

City councilors appeared to support the effort this week, with Councilor Josh Nagine stating that Lewiston has long needed to upgrade its pedestrian infrastructure.

“We live in a community that was built for industry, and ultimately we’ve been cash strapped for a very long time,” he said. “It’s difficult to change infrastructure when you don’t have the funding for it.”

But, he added, as an advocate for multi-modal transportation, “This work is excellent, and I’m hoping we can see in the future improvements that will make our city safer and more inviting.”

Ready said the overall Safe Streets 4 All project is meant to leverage further grants and federal funding to “prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.” One of the components stemming from the study is a focus on “Vision Zero,” a campaign that aims to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. Several U.S. cities, including Yarmouth, have officially adopted the policy, but it’s unclear if Lewiston plans to do so.

Acting City Administrator Brian O’Malley said the city was already working on several of the recommendations that resulted from the study, but that the overall Safety Action Plan will come before the City Council soon.

He said the city needs to officially adopt the plan in order to become eligible for state and federal grants.

In Maine, overall traffic fatalities, including pedestrian deaths, reached a 15-year high in 2022 with 181 deaths. There were 20 pedestrian fatalities in 2023, and 18 last year. There have been six already in 2025, with three occurring in Portland.

In March, the Portland City Council passed a resolution committing to ending pedestrian deaths in the city after four pedestrians have been killed by cars since November.

Lewiston officials and staff have been considering pedestrian safety initiatives since at least 2017 in the wake of three deadly pedestrian accidents in the span of a year. In November 2016, 13-year-old Jayden Cho-Sargent was struck and killed on his way to school, sparking a focus not only on pedestrian safety, but also on the Main Street corridor.

Traffic moves Friday along Sabattus Street in Lewiston near the intersection of Fairlawn Avenue. Sabattus Street between East Avenue and Pond Road has been identified as a high-injury corridor by the city. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Just days after the accident, more than 50 people packed a community forum on pedestrian safety and city staff began an inventory of city crosswalks.

Around the same time, Lewiston and Auburn teamed up to form the L/A Complete Streets committee, which works to make policy recommendations regarding traffic and pedestrian safety.

According to a previous study, the Main Street corridor sees roughly 20,000 vehicles a day, while Sabattus Street sees about 10,000.

Angelynne Amores, director of marketing and communications, said two separate projects along Main Street are scheduled to begin April 7.

One will make sidewalk and Americans with Disabilities Act improvements on a 1.3-mile stretch between the Longley Bridge and Strawberry Avenue. The other will make a series of pedestrian improvements to crossings at five different locations along the same stretch, she said.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Carl Sheline said, “Anything we can do to make our roads safer is welcomed” and he referenced the multiple 2022 and 2023 incidents that occurred within the same day.

Gagne said the city is working on several safety initiatives, and that while it “may not be everything we’d like,” the city is trying to maximize what it’s able to do with support from the Maine Department of Transportation. He said they plan to seek more public input, and then Public Works will start “putting things in to play.”