It's been more than six years since Penn State alumna Gina Cancelliere was hit by a truck crossing Atherton Street, but as the years quickly pass, her memories of that night refuse to fade.

"It was questionable whether I'd walk again," she said. "The incident has forever shaped my life."

A drunken driver struck Cancelliere. He had forgotten to turn on his headlights and was traveling at least 40 mph on North Atherton Street. The vehicle hit her left side, throwing her forward. When she landed almost 40 feet away, she was bleeding internally from her brain and had suffered two collapsed lungs, cuts on her liver, fractured ribs, pelvis, tailbone, pubic bone, damaged optic nerves and countless bruises.

An airlift to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where she underwent numerous surgeries, began her long road to recovery.

That evening in December 1999 wasn't the first -- or last -- time State College had seen an accident like Cancelliere's. About 200 pedestrians have been hit since June 1998, said Sgt. Scott Ohs, the State College Police Department's traffic supervisor.

Cancelliere, who was able to graduate a year later, now works as a meteorologist for CN8 television station in Philadelphia.

Some, however, have not been as fortunate.

Graduate student Xiaohui Xia died last month from injuries after she was hit by a car while crossing South Allen Street.

The State College Police Department is reviewing the reconstructionist's report of the accident and has not decided whether to charge the driver of the car, 73-year-old Harris Township Supervisor Clifford Warner.

Ohs said the police department is checking Xia's medical records and paying special attention to the kind of injuries she sustained during the accident.

"We're seeing if [the injuries] match up and help tell us about the speed of the driver's car," he said.

Xia suffered severe head injuries and brain activity loss from the accident and died a week later at Geisinger Medical Center.

Xia's death was the fourth pedestrian fatality in State College Borough since June 1998, which is when the police started classifying pedestrian accidents separately from automobile accidents.

Since then, there have also been two additional pedestrian fatalities in College Township and one in Harris Township.

Ohs said most of the pedestrian-vehicular accidents he has seen over the years have occurred in a crosswalk, and drivers and pedestrians have been equally at fault.

"In most cases," he said, "either cars didn't yield to the pedestrians while turning or someone blatantly walked out in front of the car."

Ohs said that after looking over accident reports from the past decade, he correlated a few specific problem areas in the borough where pedestrian-vehicular accidents happened repeatedly.

Three areas have been particularly problematic: the intersection of Beaver Avenue and Atherton Street, which has been the site of 13 pedestrian-vehicular accidents since January 2001; at College Avenue and Atherton Street, where six accidents occurred; and at College Avenue and Allen Street, where five happened. He plans to inform the State College Borough's Transportation Commission of his findings.

"Their intention is to look at these spots and try to see how and if they can be improved so we can get these numbers down," Ohs said.

State College Borough Engineer Amy Story, a member of the transportation commission, will be one of the members reviewing Ohs' report.

Story said for changes at intersections to be made -- even minor modifications -- an engineering study must be completed on the area.

For example, when a crosswalk is created, a lot more effort goes into the process than just painting the lines on the street.

"We can't just go around putting them anywhere we please; technicalities go into it," she said.

The studies, Story said, are information-gathering processes. Statistics, such as the amount of daily pedestrian and vehicular traffic at the proposed location, as well as the spot's accident history, are collected and reviewed.

Story, who has received national awards for her work on State College's traffic light configurations, said the information on the legalities of when and where pedestrians can cross the street is very complicated. The Pennsylvania Vehicle Code is often like reading hieroglyphics and can even contradict itself, she said.

For instance, it is technically illegal to cross the street in a crosswalk if the stop hand signal is up. But, according to the code, you do have the right to cross the street if it is clear of all cars, Story said.

Another action students often don't think about, Story said, is if a student decides to cross the street at certain locations -- for example, at Café 210 West, 210 W. College Ave. -- it is illegal. On the other hand, a student can cross the street at The Tavern Restaurant, 220 E. College Ave., legally.

So what's the difference?

Story said Café 210 West is between two marked crosswalks, at the Fraser Street and Burrowes Street intersections. The Tavern is a legal place to cross because it sits between a road marked with crosswalks and one that is not.

Story said students often overlook the law that says they must use a sidewalk if one is provided, and pedestrians are also not allowed to cross an intersection diagonally.

"These are all illegal actions," Story said. "A police officer can give you a ticket for them if [he or she] wanted to."

Story said the borough has only so many police officers to go around, and although pedestrian safety is a concern, the State College police would be constantly criticized if they gave out citations for illegally crossing a street instead of dealing with larger crimes.

With 13,000 cars traveling on College and Beaver avenues every day and 40,000 pedestrians walking in the borough, Story said, there are always modifications to be made.

"Our town is a unique situation," she said. "There are so many people and so many cars traveling in a small area."

Ohs said that for the abundance of cars and pedestrians in the borough, the number of accidents seems fairly low.

"It could be a lot worse," Ohs said.

Story said pedestrian-safety issues are constantly on the borough's mind, not just after a pedestrian gets seriously injured or dies.

"Situations [like Xia's] may heighten our awareness," she said. "But we never turn a blind eye on the issue."

Jennifer Butler, a spokeswoman for Partnership for a Walkable America, an organization devoted to improving walking conditions, said automobiles kill about 5,900 pedestrians every year, and 84,000 suffer nonfatal injuries.

"An increasing number of towns are taking steps to make their environments more walkable," she said.

Butler said these measures often range from implementing sidewalks on all newly constructed streets to putting in widespread traffic-calming measures.

The borough has experimented with several things to increase the safety of people on the roads and sidewalks. This fall, after an extensive study, the borough decided to implement, at most intersections, a three-second delay between when a light turns red and the next one turns green.

"This was to ensure all pedestrians are safely on the sidewalk before the cars can go," Story said. "But a lot of walkers have already figured out there's a delay, so they'll dart across the crosswalk after the light turns red."

The State College Advisory Task Force for Pedestrian Safety Education has also distributed several brochures on safety measures, providing handouts for local businesses to put in customers' bags about safety tips and precautions. The task force has also conducted surveys to get a better feel for the issue in State College.

Cancelliere, who has spent the years since her incident volunteering for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said although the driver in her accident was drunk, everyone -- pedestrians and drivers -- needs to watch out for one another at all times and to plan for unpredictable events.

"The only time we will be completely safe is when we all take responsibility for every action we make," she said. "We all share this world."