ROAD TO RECOVERY? A Russian student's death sparks an international and local push to fix ‘Bloody 98' (PHOTOS and LINKS)

Through the camera lens of “The Honest Detective,” viewers of Russian State TV will see a darker side of the Emerald Coast — one where 19-year-old student worker Pavel Perekhodnov comes to the U.S. and becomes a Highway 98 statistic.

Today, on the tragedy's one-year anniversary, Destin might be a little closer to fixing a long-time problem that has claimed nine lives and wounded many more pedestrians in the last ten years. To read about each incident, click here.

“This is really due to the fact that we have a state highway running through a resort town,” said Tim Krueger, chairman of Destin's Public Safety and Public Works committee. “Now we sort of have this proverbial bed we need to lie in.”

‘They were just out being kids’
Initial reports said that Perekhodnov left his job at the Mellow Mushroom with Anastasia Karmatskaya the night of Aug. 15 last year. Justin Tranchita, a Destin resident and witness to the accident, told The Log a different version of what happened.

For Tranchita, 28, and his Russian-born wife Anastasia Gonokhova, 21, the scenario began shortly after 11 p.m. as they hung out with Pavel, the other Anastasia and a third companion at Waffle House. Noticing how late it was getting, the couple and the impending victims said goodnight and parted ways.

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To see more photos of Pavel's time in Destin, click here.

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Tranchita said Pavel, Anastasia and another girl named Lana left the restaurant on foot and crossed safely to the south side of U.S. 98, headed for the beach.

“They were not drunk or up to no good,” Tranchita said. “They were just out being kids.”

Tranchita and his wife left the restaurant in their car and made a stop at the gas station on the way home.

As Tranchita was inside the nearby Shell Station paying for a tank of gas and a pack of smokes, Pavel and the two girls were coming down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the highway when they spotted their friends once again at the gas station.

Running back to the north side of the highway to join their friends turned out to be a tragic decision.

'It put me into shock'
What Tranchita saw next through the large window panes of the gas station will stay with him forever. Pavel and the girls made it to the break in the median, as the nearest pedestrian controlled crosswalk was almost half a mile away at Target or Airport Road.

The three paused briefly as a motorist stopped on the inside lane to let them cross.

But Stephen Ferry of Pensacola, quickly approaching from behind in his 1991 Honda station wagon, did not stop.

Ferry attempted to get around the stopped vehicle in the outside lane and did not notice the pedestrians hurrying across the highway.

This is when he struck Pavel and Anastasia.

“I saw all of this and it put me into shock,” Tranchita said. “I didn't even realize it was my friends until I saw Anastasia on the curb.”

Tranchita said he saw Anastasia fly through the air “like a ragdoll” and that Pavel made impact with the windshield of the station wagon.

Ferry reportedly pulled over and cooperated with authorities as Pavel died at the scene and Anastasia was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast.

Tranchita feels that Pavel died in an act of heroism.

“I really think the boy died trying to save her life,” Tranchita said.

The aftermath
In the year since Pavel's death, all involved have tried to move on since the accident. Tranchita said Anastasia received multiple surgeries to repair injuries to the left side of her body. This summer, she is working in the United States again in Branson, Miss.

Pavel's parents did not learn about the accident until two days after it happened. It took another two months to get his body home.

“In the end, everybody knew about it,” said Russian television journalist Dmitry Blinnikov, 31. “But the mother knew the latest.”

Blinnikov said the TV station received a letter from a viewer describing the ordeal that ensued for Pavel's family.

It was this letter that led the “The Honest Detective” program to investigate Pavel's accident along with other Russian students who died abroad.

Blinnikov arrived in Destin last week with producer Margarita Koroleva, 21, and cameraman Alexander

Bekarevich, 37, having already traveled to New York and Salt Lake City to profile cases similar to Pavel's.
While in town, they interviewed Lt. Ken Christmas of the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, who was a part of the investigation. They also traveled to Pensacola to interview Ferry, but he was nowhere to be found.

The show’s crew walked away from Destin with their own opinion of U.S. 98.

“(The) highway is really quite a dangerous road. There are too little pedestrian crossings over there,” Koroleva told The Log. “Besides there are bushes and trees planted right in the middle of the road, between the stripes, that doesn't let the driver to see any pedestrians.”

Questions about how to make it safer for pedestrians have swirled more rigorously since Pavel's death. Immediately afterward, City Councilor Sam Seevers said something must be done. Now, Krueger said his committee is polishing a rough draft of possible solutions that will be proposed to the City Council on Monday night.

Now what?
Krueger said the Public Safety committee has explored the idea of pedestrian overpasses and underpasses, but they are not viable options because overpasses require expensive infrastructure and would not be aesthetically pleasing. Underpasses would not work due to the underlying water table.
Furthermore, Krueger said overpasses are not used that much.

The committee has drafted a couple of other ideas for Destin's pedestrian problem areas along U.S. 98 — at Big Kahuna's, Airport Road, Destin Commons, Walmart and Silver Sands Outlet Center.

He said a good solution would be to add flashing lights over the crosswalks, like the one at AJ's that “seems to be working.” To read the city's study on crosswalks, click here.

Krueger personally asks, “Why couldn't we put deputies on duty?”

He believes crossing guards at the trouble spots could effectively stop traffic so people could cross. Traffic would flow more smoothly and make people drive more cautiously. He realizes this would not work at night, but a flashing, pedestrian-controlled signal would.

“It doesn't take any engineering, infrastructure, or buying property rights,” Krueger said.

He said he knows it would take funding to pay someone to patrol, and that multiple sources such as surrounding businesses, the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Development Council could be ideal contributors.

“The other thing is we simply need to educate people,” he said.

He said education on the dangers of U.S. 98 should be as common as the flag warning system used to educate visitors about surf conditions. He envisions a multilingual public awareness campaign to warn pedestrians.

For motorists, Krueger will propose putting up a tasteful sign coming into Destin from both directions to remind motorists to slow down because they are at the beach.

“What we're trying to do is change the mindset,” he said.

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For The Log's take on "Bloody 98," click here.

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