Volunteer zombies help bike officers
Arms full of DELAWARE — empty water bottles, Courtney Pickett tossed them one by one at police officers on bikes Wednesday as they weaved their way through cones while dodging projectiles and insults from the
— — zombie horde.
Smoke had just been set off in the controlled obstacle course to mimic the tear gas that officers might experience out in the streets. In this exercise, the streets were the scene of a zombie apocalypse.
Pickett was among a couple of dozen volunteers dressed as zombies at Delaware County Fairgrounds, part of the crowd-management course of the 27th International Police Mountain Bike Association Conference. The course focused on how to maintain a crowd during events such as festivals and civil disorders, with the zombies serving as the unruly crowd.
In one scenario, the officers used their bikes as a fence to push the crowd back. In another, the zombies pounded on the doorways of buildings, trying to gain access before officers peeled them off the walls.
Halloween is Pickett’s favorite holiday, so she jumped at the opportunity to dress as a zombie in the summertime. Her favorite part of the afternoon was throwing the water bottles at the officers.
“You don’t get that opportunity out there (on the streets),” said Pickett, 28, of Delaware.
Founded in 1992, the bike association is a nonprofit group committed to encouraging the use of bikes for public safety, providing network opportunities for cyclists and offering training for public-safety cyclists.
An advantage for a police officer on a bike is the ability to go places not reachable by car.
The Delaware Police Department is hosting the annual event this week. The conference began Monday and will wrap up today.
Delaware Police Officer Bob Hatcher, who has been a member of the association since 2000, put in a bid for the city to host the conference two years ago.
“It was kind of like the Olympics,” Hatcher said.
Between instructors and attendees, nearly 300 people have registered for the conference, which is primarily at Ohio Wesleyan University. This is the first time a college campus has hosted the conference.
The weeklong conference includes a range of training and certification courses as well as a series of workshops, including Bike Handling Skill Development, Street Survival and Technical/Off-Road Skill Building.
This is not the conference’s first time in the Buckeye State. Cincinnati and Dayton were hosts in 2001 and 2006, respectively.
It’s not so much DELAWARE — the traffic as the distractions that make the bustling intersection so dangerous. There may be street vendors, musicians and construction. And students, parents, strollers, bicycles and motorists. And not all are as focused on safety as they should be.
But for a 10-year-old with diminished eyesight, crossing at Sandusky and William streets can be more than a routine ordeal.
Monica Carreno, who has optical atrophy, uses the intersection and others to get around downtown with her family. And with the help of a former mobility specialist at St. Mary School, 66 East William Street, she learned she could do something about it.
“The light signal at William and Sandusky St. is hard for me to see,” she wrote to city officials last year.
Having a signal that she could hear “would make me feel safer because I would know when I should or should not walk across the busy street.”
The hand-written letter was noticed. And beginning this week, work will begin to install audible signals, and “bumpy” footpads that tell pedestrians at all four corners where they are standing and when to walk.
The upgrades will be added to the existing signals that visually “count down” the seconds needed to cross, but which Monica and others with impairments can’t clearly see.
Almost 20,000 vehicles daily use William Street at the crossing. Sandusky Street has about 12,000, according to the city. It is the city’s most crash-prone intersection.
The $35,000 cost is about a fourth of the city’s annual budget for traffic operations, said Bill Ferrigno, city engineer. The project is the first for someone with a visual impairment.
“I’ve seen a change in the tide of being more responsive,” said Ferrigno, who has almost 25 years with the city. “A lot of people don’t know that they should ask, or could ask ... and it’s a responsibility because we are here to serve.”
About 2,600 people with disabilities are served by the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities, about 1 percent of the county’s population, said Kristine Hodge, executive director.
“This is so needed,” said Hodge. “People will go to cross and vehicles will come up on them very quickly. They will start to cross and have to move back to their safety zone.”