Orange City law enforcement officers recently conducted a pedestrian safety exercise in order to educate motorists about proper crosswalk behavior. In the course of the operation, nearly 180 drivers received official warnings from the Orange City Police Department for disobeying traffic laws regarding crosswalks. The five hour exercise was a purely educational campaign, department representatives said, an no one was ticketed for violating crosswalk regulations. The operation was inspired by several recent car accidents that have taken place in the area involving pedestrians and bicyclists. Ten such accidents involving students have occurred in Orange City since the beginning of the school year, including one that killed a 16 year old male pedestrian, and 24 collisions have occurred throughout Volusia county. A classroom training session taught by the Center for Education and Research Safety and the Volusia Transportation Planning Organization preceded the exercise, which targeted local intersections with marked crosswalks but no traffic signals. Motorists who failed to stop for a pedestrian in these crosswalks were pulled over by police officers and warned that they had violated state traffic laws. The pedestrians were played by a traffic safety expert from the Center for Education and Research and Safety who was dressed in plain clothes.
As a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer, I hope that these kinds of safety education efforts will reduce the risks of roadway travel for pedestrians and motorists alike. If you have been injured in a traffic collision, please consider hiring a car accident attorney.