Tuesday, May 23, 2006

District Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Police Department Launch Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Campaign in Ward 8

Contact (Media Only): Erik Linden, DDOT, (202) 671-2004; Kevin Morison, MPDC, (202) 727-9346

(Washington, DC) The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) are launching a pedestrian safety enforcement campaign in Southeast on May 24. The campaign will feature crosswalk enforcement targeting motorists who don’t stop for pedestrians. It will also target motorists who are speeding.

Enforcement will take place along South Capitol Street — a high pedestrian accident zone. The location is a heavily used crosswalk without signals where drivers frequently fail to give pedestrians the right of way. On-street parking will be available for members of the media.

Background: Eight pedestrians have been killed so far this year in the District, six of them in Ward 8. Two fatalities and several serious pedestrian injury crashes involved children and were primarily caused by drivers failing to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, or by drivers passing vehicles stopped for pedestrians in a crosswalk. Recent analysis of high pedestrian crash intersections in the District shows that fewer than half of all drivers yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

A pedestrian hit by a driver traveling at 40 mph has a 90 percent chance of dying. A pedestrian hit by a driver traveling at 25 mph has a 15 percent chance of dying.

Who:		MPD & DDOT Personnel
What:		Live Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Campaign in Southeast
When:		Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 8:30 am – 11:30 am
Where:		Intersection of South Capitol Street and Brandywine Street, SE (one block south of Atlantic Avenue)