Citations, warnings issued during pedestrian safety campaign
Results from last month’s statewide Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Week were released this week, showing 335 citations and 313 warnings issued in the 11 participating cities.
In Oakland County, Farmington Hills, Pontiac and Southfield were selected to be part of the campaign, due to their high number of pedestrian-related traffic crashes. The other participating cities were Dearborn, Detroit, Flint, Hamtramck, Kalamazoo, Macomb Township, Sterling Heights and Warren.
Of the 335 citations handed out during the week — which ran Oct. 15-21 — 316 went to motorists and 19 to pedestrians. The most were issued in Southfield and Dearborn, each with 63. Pedestrian citations were issued only in Warren and Dearborn, which had 17 and 2, respectively.
Motorist warnings totaled 199 and pedestrian warnings totaled 119. Dearborn had the highest motorist warnings, 39, while Kalamazoo had the highest pedestrian warnings, 36.
According to a news release, law enforcement agencies’ focus during the campaign week was on changing driver behavior to keep pedestrians safe. Last year, 149 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in Michigan.
The breakdown: • Dearborn: 39 motorist warnings, 63 motorist citations, 2 warnings for pedestrians
• Detroit: 55 motorist citations
• Farmington Hills: 17 motorist warnings, 8 motorist citations, 23 pedestrian warnings
• Flint: 31 motorist warnings, 8 motorist citations, 8 pedestrian warnings
• Hamtramck: 4 motorist warnings, 1 motorist citation, 32 pedestrian warning
• Kalamazoo: 16 motorist warnings, 2 motorist citations, 36 pedestrian warnings
• Macomb Township: 9 motorist warnings, 54 motorist citations, 2 pedestrian warnings
• Pontiac: 1 motorist warning, 7 pedestrian warnings
• Southfield: 36 motorist warnings, 63 motorist citations, 2 pedestrian warnings
• Sterling Heights: 35 motorist warnings, 37 motorist citations, 2 pedestrian warnings
• Warren: 11 motorist warnings, 25 motorist citations, 7 pedestrian warnings, 17 pedestrian citations.
The enforcement campaign is supported with federal traffic safety funds provided by the United States Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and coordinated by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.