Improvements to the intersection where a young girl was killed are now visible

OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY) - On June 2, 2023, Mackenzie Van Eperen was killed by a semi-truck at the intersection of Wallace and Washington streets.

The incident has led many people across northeastern Wisconsin to call for more safety measures on the main strip. Multiple municipalities worked together to make the intersection safer for the public.

“We looked over what the engineers’ recommendations were and we all took a piece of that,” explained Dean Steingraber, Outagamie County Highway Commissioner.

Tree branches were trimmed back, excess municipal signs were removed, and the crosswalk and stop bars were repainted to be brighter.

“We did move the southbound crosswalk back with the recommendation that the vehicles and the drivers of those vehicles probably could see the pedestrians better if we moved those stop bars back,” Steingraber said.

The Kimberly area school district is also working on its safe routes to school action plan, which is scheduled to be finished by the end of the month.

“I think we take this stuff very seriously as if they were our own children. You know we take a look at everything like ‘what can we do to prevent something like this?’” Steingraber added.

Officials are still looking at additional improvements that could be added in time.

”There are some talks about putting up some buttons that have audio responses so you know if you press the button it says don’t walk or walk,” Steingraber further explained.

The commissioner also said the traffic lights at this intersection were just installed in 2020 and no pedestrians had been hit in the three years prior to the fatal incident.

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