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Letter to the editor

Not using a crosswalk can be a fatal mistake

A pedestrian crossing Missouri Avenue on Wednesday looks at the spot where a man trying to cross the street on a motorized scooter day died after being hit by a pickup truck.
	[Jim Damaske | Times]

The police can't force people to use common sense. So people continue to try to cross busy Pinellas roads mid block, despite police warnings, and they continue to be hit by cars.

The latest incident occurred Wednesday, when a man on a three-wheeled electric scooter tried to cross Missouri Avenue in Largo and did not survive the trip. Jack Schaffer, 84, of Clearwater was hit by a pickup truck and killed, a tragedy for Schaffer and his family, as well as for the pickup driver.

The tragedy unfolded on a sunny afternoon on a stretch of Missouri that has a Wal-Mart on one side and a Kmart on the other. Even when holiday traffic is not a factor, it is arguably the busiest section of Missouri Avenue in Largo, with six lanes of traffic and cars coming and going from Wal-Mart and Kmart, as well as numerous other stores and restaurants.

Though a traffic light and a crosswalk are within walking distance at the corner of Rosery Road and Missouri, some people choose to cross in the middle of the block, perhaps to go directly from Wal-Mart to Kmart. This puts them in potential conflict with Missouri Avenue through traffic traveling at 45 mph or faster and cars entering and exiting all of the store driveways.

Unbelievably, as Schaffer's body and his crumpled scooter lay in the road Wednesday, pedestrians continued to cut across the block. It is not illegal for them to do so, but it isn't smart, and the consequences can be deadly. Attempting a mid-block crossing on a scooter is particularly unwise, since they are difficult for motorists to see, and they move slowly.

The Largo Police Department has made pedestrian safety a priority, but some pedestrians stubbornly resist the department's efforts. The history of accidents at the intersection of Keene Road and East Bay Drive, both congested multilane thoroughfares, provides a relevant example.

Residents who lived on the west side of Keene consistently walked across Keene just north of the East Bay intersection to go to a grocery store located on Keene's east side. They ignored the stoplight and the crosswalk at the nearby intersection. They continued to do so even though police warned them of the dangers and even though there were frequent accidents and several fatalities in that block. In fact, a one-day survey by the city, conducted after publicity about the dangers there, showed that nearly 100 percent of the 88 pedestrian crossings occurred mid block rather than at the crosswalk.

Interestingly, one of the pedestrian fatalities there was a 91-year-old man riding an electric scooter. He didn't even have to walk to get to the crosswalk - he could have ridden there.

Eventually, the city had to install a barrier wall to keep people from crossing and erect signs warning that mid-block crossings were prohibited.

Some pedestrians are elderly folks who may be unaware of how long it takes them to get across the street. The longer it takes, the more exposure they have to the possibility of being hit.

Or perhaps some of the stubborn pedestrians in Largo assume that motorists will stop for them. They must not understand how many distractions there are to take a motorist's attention away from the road.

Or maybe some pedestrians mistakenly still think of Largo as a small town. Largo has changed. It is a bustling place, at the center of densely populated Pinellas County, crisscrossed by four- and six-lane roads carrying heavy traffic. Motorists there are in a hurry, are distracted, as all motorists are, by signs and activity along the roadways and are sometimes impaired by drugs and alcohol.

Pedestrians, don't count on motorists' seeing you and responding in time to save you. Go to a crosswalk. Or do your shopping on only one side of the street. Or get a ride from someone who can take you directly to the door of a business. Using common sense could save your life on the roads of Pinellas County.

[Last modified December 15, 2007, 21:07:47]