A man died crossing this Chapel Hill highway. Why isn’t the town responsible?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lawsuit filed Dec. 2025 was dismissed Monday in Orange County.
- Plaintiff cited a Jan. 30, 2018 letter requesting a study of N.C. 54.
- NCDOT crews began laying conduit and signalized crossings in February.
A lawsuit accusing Chapel Hill of negligence for not fixing a traffic safety issue that led to a pedestrian’s death was dismissed Monday in Orange County.
Michael Conrad, 70, died on Dec. 5, 2023, two weeks after he was hit by a car on N.C. 54 Bypass near his home at Kingswood Apartments.
Nathan Conrad filed a lawsuit on behalf of his father’s estate in December 2025, accusing the town of negligence and seeking reimbursement of funeral and burial expenses, plus damages.
Conrad had safely crossed the westbound lanes of N.C. 54 shortly before 5:40 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2023, and stopped in the grassy median between the Laurel Ridge and Kingswood apartment complexes to check for eastbound traffic, the lawsuit says.
Pedestrian signs are posted in the area to alert drivers to the unmarked crossing, located between Chapel Hill Transit’s eastbound and westbound J Route bus stops.
As Conrad crossed the eastbound lanes, a car hit him, knocking him 50 feet down the road. He was taken to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill with serious injuries and died two weeks later.
Why is the area dangerous for pedestrians?
The N.C. 54 Bypass between Old Fayetteville Road in Carrboro and South Columbia Street in Chapel Hill is lined with some of the most affordable apartment complexes in the area. Chapel Hill Transit officials have said 500 to 550 residents and UNC students and staff living along the corridor depend on the bus for daily transportation.
Kingswood and Laurel Ridge are located across the highway from each other — one with a bus stop heading west on the J Route and the other heading east. Leaving from the wrong bus stop can add time to the trip, because the route is more circuitous in one direction than the other, so residents often cross the highway to catch the bus on the other side..
Even with a highway median, it can be a dangerous dash, because drivers regularly exceed the 45 mph posted speed limit by 20 mph or more.
Other pedestrians have been killed or injured in the past, including three crashes in that area involving pedestrians since 2020, according to the town’s Vision Zero database. A motorcyclist was also hit and killed near the Abbey Lane intersection in May 2023.
Why was Chapel Hill sued?
Monday’s lawsuit leaned heavily on a Jan. 30, 2018, letter from the town to N.C. Department of Transportation Division Engineer Mike Mills requesting a study of the N.C. 54 corridor and “significant safety and accessibility concerns related to pedestrians.”
“Despite having knowledge of the safety concerns and dangers for pedestrians at the portion of the roadway on which the aforementioned accident occurred years prior to the same, Defendant Town of Chapel Hill failed to take steps within its own control to add safety measures to prevent Mr. Conrad’s death,” the lawsuit stated.
The town didn’t have any steps to take, its attorney Joshua Neighbors argued, noting state law prohibits towns from improving or changing roads owned and maintained by the state. The law also relieves the town of liability if someone is injured because the state fails to make needed pedestrian safety improvements, he said.
The attorney for Conrad’s family argued the town should have been more aggressive in pushing the state to action, but Superior Court Judge Logan Burke agreed Monday with the town’s attorney and dismissed the case.
Why is it taking so long to get a safer crossing?
NCDOT spends about 94% of its annual budget on highways and roads, leaving only about 6% for pedestrian, transit, bicycle, rail, ferry and aviation projects combined. As a result, local governments can spend years getting state funding for pedestrian crossings that are not part of a road-building project.
The state project approval process is also slow and cumbersome, and a tentative decision can be sidelined by more pressing needs, such as the Helene recovery in the western mountains.
But in February, NCDOT crews started laying underground electrical conduit for crosswalks and new, signalized pedestrian crossings at the Westbrook Drive, Abbey Lane and Kingswood Apartments locations in Carrboro and Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill town staff will upgrade five bus shelters in the corridor once the pedestrian crossings are finished.
The work comes after more than a decade of lobbying for state action by residents and elected officials concerned about the potential for more injuries and deaths. In 2019, the state issued the NC 54 Pedestrian and Bicycle Corridor Safety Study, which identified areas that residents found especially dangerous and recommendations for addressing them.
The study did not identify funding to pay for the work.
A future phase of the project could add pedestrian signals at the South Greensboro Street intersection with N.C. 54 in Carrboro.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com.
