- TPD says over the past few months it's increased the number of officers on the ground to enforce both pedestrian and bicyclists' safety.
- From January 1st to Dec 10th in the city of Tallahassee there has been 131 crashes with a person and 10 of them deadly, one in the Midtown neighborhood.
Not stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk is a moving violation and could get a driver a $173 fine.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I've been looking into how safe these crosswalks are. I'm Shamarria Morrison your Midtown Neighborhood Reporter.
You click this button. Those lights start flashing. You make sure cars notice you, and try to walk. As a pedestrian you've done everything right. Now, I'm investigating the legal responsibility of drivers.
I parked at the intersection of Thomasville Road and East 5th Avenue for about an hour, and here's what happened when people activated this pedestrian crosswalk.
The safety lights go off and car after car kept going.
David Whitty walks through Midtown crosswalks and said, "I'm familiar with this road. It's a very busy road. And people tend to not like stopping for pedestrians at this particular spot."
A few minutes before this interview a black truck swiped past when he and a friend were crossing after the lights started flashing.
Detective Jim Harris with Tallahassee Police Department said,
"when you see those lights start to flash, you need to be slowing down and allowing that pedestrian across the street, because that's the law."
I requested data from the Tallahassee Police Department and so far, this year at this intersection there have been two crashes with a person involved.
One of those crashes killed someone. Look at these numbers.
From January 1st to Dec 10th in the city of Tallahassee, there have been 131 crashes with a person. Ten of them were deadly.
"It's a moving violation for not stopping for pedestrian in the crosswalk. That in the simplest terms for us is $173 fine for that moving violation." TPD says over the past few months it's increased the number of officers on the ground to enforce both pedestrian and bicyclists' safety.
Darryl Alford also walks through Midtown and said, "I actually think Midtown is already very walkable. And with a couple different adjustments like this flashing yellow light to be a solid red one, possibly when you press it, I think that'd be a big bonus."
When it comes to citing those drivers who break the law, TPD explained, "it's not something that someone can tell us happened. It's something we have to observe. And then we can do enforcement action at that point."
The increased foot patrols TPD is doing have seen results. Officers have talked to almost 300 people about pedestrian safety, given 47 warnings, and 14 citations.
