St. Paul, MN : Pedestrian hit and killed by a vehicle in West Seventh neighborhood early Thursday morning, Oct 1, 2015

A 63-year-old St. Paul woman was killed crossing St. Clair Avenue on Thursday morning while walking with her husband.

St. Paul police were called at 6:45 a.m. to St. Clair and West Seventh Street, where they found Kunlek Wangmo lying in the street. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Wangmo was walking southwest on Seventh Street when a car struck her in the crosswalk at St. Clair, St. Paul police spokesman Steve Linders said Thursday.

Wangmo's husband had crossed the street when he heard the crash and turned around to see his wife lying in the street, Linders said. The couple walked the route every morning.

"It's an important reminder to be aware of your surroundings, even if it's a route you take on a daily basis," Linders said.

The 29-year-old driver is cooperating with investigators, and there is no indication that drugs or alcohol played a role in the incident, he said.

"Obviously she didn't see Ms. Wangmo," Linders said, adding that the driver told officers she believed she had the right of way.

A resident who lives near the intersection called it a bad corner full of blind spots.

"It's horrible that it happened, but it was just a matter of time," said Jennifer Pennington, another neighborhood resident. "It's dangerous. It's not clear. It's not pedestrian-friendly."

Pennington learned about the incident from the neighborhood's Facebook group Thursday morning and immediately took action.

She made a Google Form and posted it to the Facebook page.

It asks St. Paul residents to list dangerous intersections and ideas for how to improve them.
Pennington said she'll send the information she gathers to the St. Paul City Council. The form had almost 15 responses in the first 20 minutes it was posted, she said.

The Google Form is at bit.ly/1JHun16. "We have a few large intersections like St. Clair and West Seventh, and they're just kind of messy -- the one at Randolph and West Seventh has five different entrance points that are connecting, and there's a lot of pedestrian traffic right there. It's the same with the St. Clair intersection," Pennington said.

"It was so sad," she said of Wangmo's death. "It didn't have to happen."

From 2009 to 2013, 18 pedestrians were killed in St. Paul, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

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St. Paul woman on daily walk with husband struck, killed by car