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Stop, or get popped Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Maria Swan, Medford Police Department's cultural outreach coordinator, crosses Crater Lake Avenue at Grand Avenue in Medford on Tuesday as one of many drivers breaks the law by driving through the school crosswalk. Police conducted a lunchtime sting and ticketed 57 drivers for failing to yield to a pedestrian. Nearly 60 drivers who fail to yield to a pedestrian are ticketed during a Medford sting operation By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Drivers were protesting tickets they pocketed Tuesday for failing to stop for a pedestrian at a marked school crosswalk. Medford officers handed out 57 citations to drivers who failed to yield during a sting operation at Crater Lake and Grand avenues between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Police wrote nine other citations for various traffic offenses and had two cars towed because the drivers were not licensed. The Police Department's traffic office logged several complaints from motorists protesting their tickets, said officer Gail Schweizer. Drivers have the right to contest the tickets - which have a $175 bail - in court. But the sting operation cannot be considered entrapment on the part of police, officers said. An orange sign placed 350 feet in front of the intersection warned drivers that police are enforcing pedestrian laws in the area. Orange cones were set up 228 feet from the crossing. The decoy pedestrian - who wore a bright orange vest bearing the word "police" - stepped into the crosswalk before cars reached the cones to make sure drivers had plenty of time to stop, Schweizer said. Many violators told police that they didn't see any pedestrians or that they thought the pedestrian was a police officer or construction worker. All pedestrians have the right-of-way in marked or unmarked crosswalks, and drivers must stop if walkers are on their side of the roadway or so close that they constitute an immediate hazard, Schweizer said. The intersection of Crater Lake and Grand avenues has much more traffic than Columbus Avenue and Prune Street, which police targeted last week, Schweizer said. "We've got a lot of kids walking back and forth for school there" at Grand Avenue, said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. On Tuesday, the police department used one more motorcycle officer than last week and another in a patrol car to help with the enforcement campaign, Schweizer said. The next pedestrian enforcement operation is March 6 at Eighth and Bartlett streets from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 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.