A 36-year-old Milwaukee man using a wheelchair was struck and killed crossing Burleigh Street near North 49th Street early Saturday, Oct. 10, thrown 15 to 20 feet from his wheelchair and belongings by the force of the impact. Patrick McGowan was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:25 a.m., and now, days later, a driver has been charged in connection with his death.
Milwaukee police said a westbound vehicle struck McGowan as he attempted to cross Burleigh Street around 2:15 a.m., according to TMJ4. A 39-year-old driver was taken into custody at the scene, and CBS58 reports that a Milwaukee man has since been charged in the crash. Earlier, FOX6 reported that charges were pending review by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office. The available reporting does not resolve that timeline.
A Second Death on the Same Stretch
McGowan's death was not an isolated tragedy on that block. Seven months earlier, on March 6, 73-year-old Henry “Happy” Goodlow was struck and killed while crossing Burleigh Street near North 48th Street, just one block away, the same TMJ4 report notes. The two deaths have drawn fresh scrutiny to a stretch of roadway that officials have already flagged as dangerous.
Milwaukee's High Injury Network identifies streets with a concentration of serious and fatal crashes. The city's broader safety goals and the status of projects at these two crash locations are separate questions: a corridor's inclusion in the network does not mean an improvement project is scheduled there.
Safety Upgrades Nearby, But Not at the Crash Site
TMJ4 reported that a city traffic-safety project was underway at North 51st Street and West Burleigh Street, including accessible curb ramps and curb extensions. The station also reported that officials said no additional active improvement project was planned for the nearby stretch where Goodlow and McGowan were killed.
Milwaukee’s Vision Zero goals
The City of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero Action Plan executive summary says 68 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured in city traffic crashes in 2024. It also says 10% of city streets account for 58% of serious injuries or deaths from traffic crashes. The city says its plan prioritizes safety improvements on the High Injury Network and sets a goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2037; those citywide priorities do not establish a project at the Burleigh crash sites. See the Vision Zero Action Plan executive summary and the city’s Vision Zero overview.
The deaths add to a grim tally across Milwaukee this year. At least 35 people have died in traffic crashes so far in 2026, including nine pedestrians since the start of July, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sixty-two people died in traffic crashes in Milwaukee in all of 2025, police data cited by the Journal Sentinel shows.
Wheelchair Users Face Elevated Risk
A Georgetown University Medical Center summary of a national study, whose findings are available on PubMed, estimated that pedestrians using wheelchairs had about 36% higher risk of death in road traffic collisions than non-wheelchair users; that is a national finding, not a Milwaukee-specific estimate. In Wisconsin, one pedestrian was killed or injured every seven hours in 2023, with 61 pedestrians killed and 1,190 injured that year, per the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
McGowan's death also echoes another recent Milwaukee-area case. A 70-year-old man in a wheelchair died after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the street on the 1200 block of West Atkinson Avenue on July 14, 2026, according to a report from AOL. Under Wisconsin law, causing the death of another person through the negligent operation of a vehicle is a Class G felony, per the Wisconsin Legislature's statutes.
