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Police re-examine pedestrian safety Downtown Ashland fatality raises the level of community awareness about hazards to walkers By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Judy Kerr is afraid of hitting a pedestrian every day that she drives her full-sized Ford pickup with a horse trailer in tow through downtown Ashland. "I worry about hitting somebody ... I'm gonna hit somebody," said the 51-year-old Valley View Road resident. And in light of the recent death of an Ashland woman, that fear is, more than ever, a reality. Grants will help enforce pedestrian safety In an effort to cut down on car accidents involving pedestrians, the Oregon Department of Transportation is offering grants to police agencies. Until grants become available in March, however, police departments are using their own resources to attack the issue of pedestrian safety. In Ashland, drivers soon may have to beware of sting operations, said police Chief Scott Fleuter. Officers will be stationed at downtown crosswalks videotaping cars that fail to stop for pedestrians crossing the street. The on-foot officers radio violators' license plates to other officers waiting in patrol cars up the road, Fleuter said. Medford police are considering a similar enforcement program next month to target the downtown area, where pedestrian traffic has increased as Rogue Community College expanded, said Lt. Mike Moran. "We're not looking to write tickets," Moran said. "We're looking to make the streets safer for people crossing." Officials with both police departments said they would apply for the ODOT enforcement grants that pay for police officers to work overtime hours targeting drivers who don't yield to those traveling on foot. The grants are available to 21 Oregon cities. ODOT asks police departments using the grant money to hold one enforcement operation during the week of May 17 - designated pedestrian safety day, said Rick Waring, manager for ODOT's bicyclist and pedestrian safety program. Another should target kids going back to school. In 2000, ODOT officials reported 508 statewide car accidents involving pedestrians who were injured, down from 602 accidents in 1999. There were 46 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in 2000. In 1999, there were 45 fatal crashes statewide, a decrease from 63 in 1998. Joan Bournstein, 73, was walking home from work on Dec. 20 when she was struck in an East Main Street crosswalk by a full-sized pickup around 5:45 p.m. Bournstein was treated for various fractures, Ashland paramedics said. She died at Rogue Valley Medical Center 10 days later. The driver of the pickup, 29-year-old Phillip Delrosa of Central Point, was ticketed for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Two cars in the street's middle lane had stopped for Bournstein, Ashland police said. Chief Scott Fleuter said the fatal downtown accident has prompted police to take a closer look at crosswalk enforcement. Bournstein's daughter, Laura Schultz, also of Ashland, said she believes that lighted crosswalks are the only way to ensure pedestrian safety. In memory of her mother, she has established a fund to install strips of recessed lights - similar to those on an airport runway - that could be activated by pedestrians at the intersection of East Main and First streets where her mother was hit. But Fleuter doesn't think lighted crosswalks are the ultimate answer. If installed, he said, the lights would most likely be activated so much at downtown crosswalks that drivers would become too habituated to the mechanism, and it would lose its effectiveness. "There's so much traffic; it's so bustling downtown," he said. The lights have already been planned for crosswalks near Southern Oregon University on a redesigned Siskiyou Boulevard, Ashland city officials have said. While the city can put in more traffic signals and police can spend more time enforcing traffic regulations, the real challenge to the community is coming to terms with attitudes about transportation, said Councilwoman Cate Hartzell. "It's about 'I'm not going to speed in your neighborhood, and you're not going to speed in my neighborhood. I'm going to watch out for your kids and you're going to watch out for my grandmother,' " Hartzell said. Hartzell said she hoped the City Council would suggest the police department narrow their criteria for writing speeding tickets, so more would be written for motorists traveling 6 or 7 mph over the speed limit rather than 10 or 11. Yet some believe the fault often lies with pedestrians. "It seemed to be when I was a kid that you waited for the cars to go by, and then you crossed the street," Kerr said. She's frustrated by pedestrians who just walk out in front of her truck, not realizing that the truck is pulling a trailer with three thoroughbreds and doesn't stop on a dime. Pedestrians can legally cross the street only in a marked crosswalk or at the intersection of two streets where it's unmarked. While they do have the right-of-way at these crossings, pedestrians can't cross at any moment. Under Oregon law, pedestrians cannot leave the curb or "other place of safety" and move into the path of a vehicle that is "so close as to constitute an immediate hazard." Pedestrians can even be ticketed for the offense, if not seriously hurt or killed. "If you don't use common sense, all the laws in the world will not protect you," said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. "If you walk right out in front of cars, you're going to get killed." Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.