In an effort to combat crosswalk collisions, the city of St. Paul has declared this week Pedestrian Awareness Week.
According to city statistics, 302 people have been hit struck by vehicles at intersections in St. Paul over the last two years. That’s far too many, said St. Paul police department spokesman Sgt. Paul Paulos.
“Today people have so many distractions, talking on cellphones or just having a bad day, and they don’t take time to notice that there is a pedestrian,” said Paulos. “They are unfocused. It’s clear and evident that drivers don’t follow the pedestrian laws, and for those who violate there is a high probability they will be cited.”
As part of Pedestrian Awareness Week, St. Paul police will camp out at some areas of high foot-traffic to keep an eye out for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians, said Paulos. He noted that Minnesota law states that drivers must yield to pedestrians at marked crosswalks and at intersections with or without marked crosswalks.
In addition to the added patrols, the city used a $1,000 donation from the Grand Avenue Business Association to add bright orange flags on corners of some busy St. Paul intersections. Pedestrians can pick up one of the bright flags from a tube on one side of the street and deposit it in a similar tube once they safely cross the street.
Madison, Wisconsin instituted 50 such flag sites a few years ago, and city officials say the program has been a rousing success. Local and national studies say drivers stop about 70 percent of the time when a person appears ready to cross the street with the flag in their hand, compared to just 20 percent when they aren’t equipped with the orange flag.
Possible Penalties
As we mentioned in a previous blog, failing to yield to pedestrian fines can rack up quickly. Make sure you stay aware of your surroundings this week and whenever you’re driving in areas of heavy foot-traffic. Some penalties St. Paul police will be looking for this week include:
- Failure to obey a stop sign or traffic control device – $128 fine.
- Failure to yield right of way – $128 fine.
- Failure to yield to a pedestrian – $178 fine.
- Improper or prohibited turn – $128 fine.
Under Minnesota law, a driver only needs to wait for a pedestrian to cross their lane of traffic before continuing. Most of the time that takes less than 5 seconds. Give pedestrians those extra seconds and say yourself a $178 fine.
Related source: Star-Tribune
