Crosswalk where woman struck called dangerous

Pedestrians say this crosswalk that crosses North Main near Pine Street is a hazard. (Harrison Thorp photo)

ROCHESTER - As heavy traffic coursed on Friday along North Main Street near the crosswalk where a Somersworth woman was struck by a hit-and-run driver on Thursday a woman walking her dog across from George and Ed’s General Store shook her head and grimaced.

“I use that crosswalk to go to George and Ed’s all the time; it’s very dangerous,” she said. “I use it, but I wouldn’t walk my dog across it.”

Seconds later as if to prove the point, a motorcycle screeched its brakes to avoid rear-ending a pickup truck stopped in the road as it waited for a vehicle ahead of it to make a left turn onto a side street.

“See what I mean,” the woman said. “See how dangerous it is here.”

Katherine Littlefield, 25, of Somersworth, was struck on Thursday when she was crossing the sidewalk just before 6 p.m. Rochester Police are on the lookout for a black Nissan Pathfinder witnesses say they saw heading southbound after it struck the young woman.

Littlefield was transported to Skyhaven Airport where she was picked up by a DHART helicopter and taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, where a nursing supervisor today said she remains in satisfactory condition.

Meanwhile, at the Exhibition Hall at the Rochester Fair, Craft Supervisor Annette Plaisted said her staff and fellow crafters were shocked and saddened at news of the accident as Littlefield has been a longtime exhibitor there and this year won the Flora Sherburne Memorial Award for one of her exhibits.

“We’re like a family here, and Katherine has been bringing in her jewelry and other creations since she was a child,” Plaisted said Friday afternoon.

Back at the crosswalk, a man standing nearby said he knew of three pedestrians who had been struck in the same crosswalk in the past year.

“I told them they shouldn’t allow parking on this side he said,” he said pointing to cars parked along the side opposite George and Ed’s store. “It makes it hard to see the crosswalk.”

Efforts to reach Rochester Police regarding the investigation into the incident and to confirm the number of accidents in the crosswalk in the recent past were unsuccessful as of this story’s posting.