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Officers step out in crosswalk crackdown
Police will dress plainly then start walking. Motorists who don't yield will be pulled over and could face a traffic fine of up to $117.50.
By JON WILSON
Published May 7, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - Motorists barging through pedestrian crosswalks are apt to get a surprise -- and perhaps a $117.50 ticket. Police have started stopping drivers who ignore yield signs and street markings when someone is trying to get from one side of a street to the other via one of the city's many marked crosswalks. For the time being, officers are just handing out warnings unless a flagrant violation is observed. Tickets will come later, police say, after a few weeks of trying to educate motorists. "We just want to get the word out . . . get pedestrians on (drivers') radar,'' said Mike Frederick, the city's neighborhood transportation manager. The campaign is part of an effort to make city streets friendlier to pedestrians. St. Petersburg has gotten a reputation as a dangerous place for walkers. Officials point to statistics they collected that show an annual average of 151 vehicle/pedestrian accidents since 1999, including 6.5 fatalities per year. State law says motorists must yield to pedestrians, slowing or stopping when someone "is on the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely . . . as to be in danger." All that is required, said Frederick, "is a foot in the roadway.'' Intersections are considered crosswalks, even if unmarked, Frederick said. Pedestrians aren't free of responsibility. They are subject to a $43.50 ticket if, for example, they are caught suddenly leaving a curb and moving into the path of a vehicle so close that the driver cannot effectively yield. Police say they plan a special detail at least once a week from now on aimed at catching careless motorists. They will do it like this: An officer in plain clothes will try to use a crosswalk, noting the cars that refuse to stop. The officer will radio the information to other officers in chase cars who will pull over the offenders. On Thursday, traffic homicide investigator Scott Pierce, clad in shorts, baseball cap and a University of Miami jersey, stationed himself on First Avenue N a half-block west of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. When cars reached the first warning sign 140 feet from the crosswalk, Pierce began what usually amounted to a risky stroll in the crosswalk. Few vehicles stopped. Among those that didn't were a county bus, a couple of city government vehicles and a U.S. mail truck. Not all the offenders were pulled over by one of the four chase cars deployed on 11th Street N; there were too many to catch all of them. Officers gave out 68 warnings in about three hours, Frederick said. They also gave one citation to a driver who swerved around an elderly pedestrian and yelled at him. And they issued another 12 citations for such things as not wearing a seat belt, failure to produce proof of insurance or faulty equipment. Neighborhood Times counted 100 cars at random. Seven yielded to pedestrians when they should have. That, said Frederick, represented a high compliance rate. Usually, he said, it is more like 0 to 3 percent during a given monitoring period. The campaign is being conducted by officers on overtime paid using a federal grant, officials said.
[Last modified May 7, 2006, 10:05:13]
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