36-year-old Miami man hit and killed by pickup truck on Okeechobee Boulevard, police say
WEST PALM BEACH — A 36-year-old Miami man was struck and killed by a pickup Saturday night as he crossed Okeechobee Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Cory Siaba was walking across Okeechobee near Florida's Turnpike at about 9:30 p.m. when a 2023 Toyota Tacoma driven by a 56-year-old Acreage man hit him head-on.
The truck was traveling west, but it wasn't clear in which direction Siaba was walking, according to the report. He was crossing the eight-lane road outside a designated crosswalk.
Siaba died at the scene of the crash.
The western section of Okeechobee has fewer designated crosswalks than its eastern half. Siaba was in an area where the two nearest crosswalks, at Haverhill Road and at Meridian Road, are nearly a mile apart.
It is not clear how fast the truck was traveling. The posted speed limit on Okeechobee Boulevard is 45 mph, but cars often exceed it,
The driver of the pickup had not been charged in connection with the crash as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the report and the Palm Beach County jail log. By crossing outside a crosswalk, Siaba violated the driver's right-of-way, the sheriff's report says.
Roads like Okeechobee Boulevard are most dangerous to pedestrians
In 2022, at least 7,508 pedestrians were killed as a result of crashes on roads across the U.S., according to the Governors Highways Safety Association, which analyzed data from all states but Oklahoma, which did not participate in the study.
In addition to those deaths, there are more than 47,000 hospitalizations each year resulting from pedestrians being hit by cars, according to a September 2020 analysis published in BMC Public Health.
The roads that are most dangerous for pedestrians are those with speed limits higher than 30 mph where more than 25,000 vehicles travel per day, according to January 2021 research published in The Journal of Transport and Land Use. These roads are often in commercial areas.
The section of Okeechobee Boulevard where Siaba was killed had an annual daily traffic count of 72,500 vehicles in 2022, according to data collected by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work; Subscribe today!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cory Siaba hit and killed by pickup truck on Okeechobee in West Palm
