The Santa Maria Police Department is continuing to ramp up its patrol of locations where pedestrian and bike collisions have occurred relatively frequently. The department began implementing new enforcement operations this month, and it stepped up enforcement yet again starting Dec. 20, according to a news release.
The department has added extra officers to patrol locations with higher rates of pedestrian and bike collisions, intending to lower collision-related deaths and injuries. The department has pinpointed those locations over the past three years, which saw more than 300 collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists that resulted in injury.
Officers will keep a close eye on drivers who speed, make illegal turns, fail to stop for signs and signals, or fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. But pedestrians and bikers aren’t off the hook—violations enforcement will also increase for pedestrians who cross the street illegally or fail to yield to drivers who have the right of way, as well as bikers who fail to follow the same traffic laws that apply to motorists.
This increased enforcement is funded by a $293,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, which will back 77 individual operations for traffic-related issues over the next year.
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2016.