Indio Police planning pedestrian safety enforcement operations
Indio Police (IPD) officers will be performing pedestrian safety enforcement operations on Monday, January 30, focusing enforcement on crash-causing factors involving motorists and pedestrians.
Routine traffic patrols will focus efforts in trouble spots, while special targeted patrols will be deployed to crackdown on drivers and pedestrians who violate traffic laws meant to protect all roadway users.
Officers said IPD has mapped out locations over the past 5 years where pedestrian involved crashes have happened, along with the violations that led to those crashes. Officers will be looking for traffic offenses made by drivers and pedestrians alike that can lead to life changing injuries. Special attention will be directed toward drivers speeding, making illegal turns, failing to stop for signs and signals, failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks or any other dangerous violations.
Also, officers said enforcement will be taken for observed violations when pedestrians cross the street illegally or fail to yield to drivers who have the right of way. Pedestrians should cross the street only in marked crosswalks or intersections.
Funding for the program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Officers said pedestrian deaths are rising in California as more peopled use non-motorized means of transportation. They said IPD has investigated 8 deadly and 50 injury crashes involving pedestrians during the past 3 years. In 2013, 701 pedestrian deaths occurred in the state, accounting for more than 23 percent of all roadway deaths, much higher than the national average of 15 percent.
