A female left the scene rattled late Wednesday afternoon after a small SUV collided with the back end of a large white van, just short of hitting her while walking across the pedestrian crosswalk outside the arches on Summit Avenue.

St. Paul Police Department Officer Houa Vang said that the smaller vehicle rear-ended the van.

“Basically, he was stopping for pedestrians, which he has to,” Vang said, “and the vehicle rear-ended him.”

Vang also said that this was the first time in his 13 years of working for the St. Paul Police Department that he’s had to respond to an accident at this particular crosswalk.

Mark Jettenberg drove the white van and said he was stopped when it felt like the car hit him from behind “going 20 mph.”

“Someone was crossing the crosswalk,” Jettenberg said. “I stopped, and the lady didn’t see me. Her car is totalled, but mine is fine. You can’t get them apart. They’re hooked.”

Sue Maxa, the SUV driver, said she saw the reaction of the student crossing after the accident.

“The poor girl that was in the crosswalk was very scared,” Maxa said.

Even though this was a close call, the StarTribune reported that a Macalester College student was struck while trying to walk across Grand Avenue by the Macalester campus this past August.

With daylight hours getting shorter, the Minnesota Department of Transportation will implement a pedestrian safety campaign for October.

Last year, 40 pedestrians were killed and over 800 were injured statewide. So far this year, two dozen pedestrians have died.

Sophomore Amanda Gottschalk said that when she walks across the same crosswalk that the woman in the accident was almost struck in, motorists usually stop.

“Sometimes you’ll have (a driver) honking at you, but you just deal with it,” Gottschalk said.

Freshman Khan Kinza didn’t see the crash but was waiting at the bus stop when the police arrived.

“I think they (drivers) need to be more safe because it is a college campus,” Kinza said. “But at the same time, students need to watch out for the cars.”

Sue Groth, Minnesota’s state traffic engineer, said many motorists don’t yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, while many pedestrians either don’t pay attention, cross the street against the light or jaywalk.

Vang said to avoid close calls in the future at St. Thomas crosswalks, drivers can do a couple things.

“They just have to pay attention,” Vang said. “You have to stop for pedestrians, and you have to give yourself plenty of room for reaction.”

Hannah Anderson can be reached at ande5385@stthomas.edu.