Annual Holiday Pedestrian Safety Initiative
The annual holiday pedestrian safety initiative, coordinated by the Maryland International Corridor CSAFE Team, was a success again this year! With over six media outlets present, four from the Hispanic media, the initiative received more attention than ever before. Both Univision and Telemundo featured the event and crosswalk safety as their major stories on their news broadcasts. With Santa Claus himself demonstrating how to properly use a crosswalk, the message was made clear that the place to cross the street safely is in between those white painted lines.
There was great participation from Montgomery County, Prince George's County and the Takoma Park Police Departments. A total of 22 officers participated in the initiative. One of the Special Assignment Team (SAT) Units and the Community Response Team (CRT) Units participated from the Prince George's County Police Department, District 1. The newly formed Tactical Enforcement Unit (TEU) from the Takoma Park Police Department participated, along with three officers from the patrol division. The Montgomery County Police Department dedicated eight officers from their Silver Spring Traffic Enforcement Unit. Collectively, officers issued the following:
(a) seventy (70) warnings to both pedestrians and vehicles for jaywalking or failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk;
(b) three (3) warnings for speeding;
(c) five (5) citations to vehicles that failed to yield to a pedestrian; and
(d) eleven (11) citations for speeding.
Due to the cold weather, the activity only lasted for one and a half (1 ½) hours; however that did not hinder the officers or community volunteers from working hard. Community volunteers and officers distributed thousands of candy canes, educational brochures and reflective wear for zippers and shoelaces. At times, the multilingual volunteers were able to play an important role in breaking down language barriers that some officers and pedestrians encountered by providing translation assistance to non-English speaking pedestrians. The volunteers assisted the officers with conveying an important safety message: "Use the crosswalk.”
Posted by Cathy at December 21, 2007 09:46 AM