BENTONVILLE — When Megan Davis stepped onto Southeast 14th Street on an early October afternoon, she had no way of knowing an ambulance turning onto 14th Street had just changed the stoplight pattern at her intersection.

Seconds later, a Bentonville school bus drove into the intersection at 34 mph on what a police report determined was a green light. The bus driver was looking back at a student and hit Davis, 17, without slowing down, according to the police report.

No witnesses were on the scene to tell police the color of the light at its intersection with Southeast P Street for eastbound drivers, the direction the bus was traveling. The bus driver reported the light was green before she turned to speak to the student. The report hinges its assertion the light was green on its expectation of an emergency preemption system the Fire Department says was functioning properly at the time of the incident.

The report states the system wouldn’t have permitted a "walk" signal for Davis. It goes on to say she “did not enter the roadway safely and she interfered with oncoming traffic.”

However, a witness stopped at Southwest P Street traveling in the same direction as Davis said he saw her push the pedestrian crossing button and cross on a "walk" signal.

Police officials discounted the witness statement in their conclusion, basing their findings on a physical reconstruction of the incident. Police also discounted witness statements from a Bentonville firefighter and a Rogers firefighter, who both claim the traffic light going eastbound was red when they arrived just seconds after the incident. The police report inserts a comment after each of their statements claiming they aren’t consistent with the evidence of the investigation.

“Physical evidence is always more reliable than eyewitnesses,” wrote Fire Chief Brent Boydston in an email.

City transportation and fire officials refused to grant in-person interviews regarding the Davis incident. They instead requested questions be sent by email. Mayor Bob McCaslin said all responses to inquiries are “being overlooked.”

The preemption system, purchased by the city with a combination of grant and city money last year, is designed to give emergency vehicles a green light in their direction and all other directions a red light. The system is activated within the cab of a fire truck or ambulance and is deactivated when a door is opened or it’s switched off. While in route to an emergency, satellites read the activity of the vehicle — including turn signals — and turn traffic lights green along the anticipated route.

Marcus Williams, a Bentonville firefighter, was driving the ambulance that preempted the light in question and said the light was red when he arrived at it. In a properly functioning scenario, the stoplight would turn green as the fire truck or ambulance approached. Williams said he dropped off a paramedic to assist Davis, then continued to an area hospital with the patient he was transporting.

The report states, “It was Williams’ belief that the pre-emption system did not change the light (green) at Southeast 14th Street and Southeast P Street.” Any lack of change would have been the result of a malfunctioning preemption system. Williams noted in the report the system failed before at the intersection of Southeast 14th Street and Southeast J Street, just one intersection west of the one where Davis was injured. 

Chief Boydston said the light at Southeast 14th and J streets wasn’t receiving a proper signal and was reset Sept. 18. He said it’s now working.

Boydston said the light at Southeast P and 14th streets was functioning properly Oct. 4. He said he immediately reports any malfunction in the preemption system to the Transportation Department.

Police Officer Andy Ball and Brad Conley, traffic signal technician, tested the preemption system at the intersection Oct. 7. Williams drove the same ambulance along the same route he took Oct. 4 while Ball stood where Davis stood just three days earlier. Ball said he pushed the pedestrian crossing button, then watched the preemption signal “capture” the light. Ball stated the pedestrian signal changed from a "walk" to a flashing "don’t walk." After eight seconds, the pedestrian signal changed to a solid ‘don't walk.’

“The function of the traffic signal and the preemption system were tested and observed as working properly,” the report states.

The report also notes video showed the traffic light was stopping vehicles in the lanes that would be anticipated in a functioning preemption scenario. However, the report references a “dark vehicle” the video shows traveling beside the school bus. The vehicle slows down or stops at the intersection before the bus hits Davis. It then creeps through the intersection and travels on its way.

David Levinson, a professor of traffic engineering at the University of Minnesota, said preemption systems are designed to make intersections safer for vehicles, but not pedestrians.

“The idea of emergency vehicle preemption is that the emergency vehicle can get through more quickly,” Levinson said. “There is no intent to make it safer for pedestrians.”

Levinson wrote about a malfunctioning preemption signal in Minnesota that was dangerous for pedestrians. Pedestrians with a "walk" signal in a crosswalk would be “stranded” in the intersection once an emergency vehicle triggered the preemption signal.

“It’s physically possible for this to happen,” Levinson said. “In my experience, the preemption system makes it less safe for pedestrians. I guess the hope is that if you can respond to an emergency situation more quickly, it would offset the danger to pedestrians.”

Boydston was asked if the city has seen faster response times since the system was installed last year. He responded, “It is more about safety of the public and Fire Department personnel responding than response times.”

He didn’t provide an answer outlining response times. When the city applied for grant money to purchase the preemption system, it said its current response times in most of the city “do not meet NFPA 1710 standards for timely fire department deployment.”

The city deployed the preemption system at 30 intersections along 14th Street and Walton Boulevard. The grant applicants said those two corridors carry 95 percent of all fire department calls.