Police Offer Tips For Pedestrians and Drivers

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According to the CDC, nearly 5,000 pedestrians are killed in traffic crashes each year. Now that warmer weather is just around the corner, expect the streets to be more crowded.

Crossing the street is something many don’t think twice about. But in the United States, there is one crash-related pedestrian death every two hours and a pedestrian injury every seven minutes.

“People never go over like ten miles per hour and they’re always respectful for pedestrians walking around on campus,” says NDSU junior Thomas Sczepanski.

One NDSU student doesn’t see it as a problem in Fargo.

“I just make sure to look around a lot more often because people don’t always use crosswalks,” Sczepanski says.

But police say now is the time to be walking defensively.

“We see them just about daily where we have these near misses especially this time of year where we have more pedestrians and bicyclists being out,” says Lt. Michael Mitchell of Fargo Police.

Police say that in nearly every case, even if a pedestrian is walking outside of a crosswalk the driver is responsible.

“We always encourage people to use the crosswalks as much as possible. We really discourage the mid-block crossing. The law says you have to stop behind that crosswalk. A lot of times people will inch forward or they’ll stop a little bit closer to the actual intersection,” Mitchell says.

And although we learned it at a young age, looking both ways before crossing the street will never get old.

“With my kids even if there’s a stop sign I try to encourage them to make eye contact with the driver. You know once you make that eye contact usually they’ve seen you and it’s safe to cross,” says Mitchell.

“Use common sense and don’t go when someone’s clearly speeding trying to get through a light, you know,” Sczepanski says.

The CDC also says that alcohol played a role in 48 percent of the crashes that resulted in death.