Police across state partner with PennDot on pedestrian safety: 'A two-way street'

This month, police departments across Pennsylvania are partnering with PennDOT to emphasize pedestrian safety as part of a pedestrian safety enforcement wave.

The enforcement wave is taking place April 29 through May 12 and seeks to combine education, community engagement, and enforcement activities to help reduce pedestrian-involved crashes as warmer summer weather approaches.

Among the more than 25 departments involved in the enforcement wave is Hanover Borough Police Department, which partnered with PennDOT for a safety presentation in downtown Hanover to kick off wave 2 of the initiative.

On Monday, Hanover officers and PennDOT officials met in the borough's square for a Facebook Live presentation, sharing tips to stay safe as a pedestrian or driver.

Lieutenant Joseph Bunty, of Hanover police, hopes that through engaging with the community, conducting pedestrian safety enforcement details, and sharing tips for safe walking and driving, the borough can reduce the incidence of pedestrian involved crashes.

Crashes involving pedestrians make up 15% of total crash-related fatalities, but only represent 3% of total crashes, said Jeff Bowman, the region 2 law enforcement liaison from the Highway Safety Network.

The reason for this, Bowman said, is due to just how vulnerable pedestrians are in comparison to other road users.

Pedestrians do not have the safety of a vehicle protecting them, Bowman added, nor the helmets that motorcyclists and bicyclists use on the roadway.

While these crashes occur anywhere, Bowman said, 82% of them occur in downtown, urban environments, such as downtown Hanover.

Hanover has had 35 pedestrian-involved crashes in the last five years, Bunty shared, many of which were in the downtown portion of the borough.

Hanover police have routinely conducted pedestrian safety details downtown, Bunty said, and will be emphasizing them as part of the enforcement project PennDOT is conducting.

During these details, officers engage with the public, passing out pamphlets provided by PennDOT and sharing pedestrian safety tips to those they encounter walking throughout downtown, Bunty said.

In the event that an officer witnesses an unsafe action by a pedestrian or driver, the officers are able to engage them to educate them, or in extreme examples, cite them for safety violations.

"The end goal of all of those steps is to educate the public and reduce those pedestrian involved crashes," said Bunty.

A two-way street

A key part of the enforcement wave is emphasizing the "shared responsibility" of pedestrian safety.

That's because, as Bunty and Bowman point out, there are multiple ways that both pedestrians and drivers can ensure each other's safety on the roadway.

As many pedestrian crashes occur in the middle of blocks, and not at crosswalks, Bunty emphasized the importance of pedestrians utilizing crosswalks to safely cross the roadway. In several cases, Hanover police have seen crashes where the pedestrian has been the responsible party due to crossing in front of traffic in the middle of a block.

According to Pennsylvania law, pedestrians who cross roadways in the middle of a block, away from crosswalks, must yield to vehicles.

Crosswalks do not actually need to be marked to be considered a crosswalk, Bowman noted, and any intersection of two roads can be considered a crosswalk.

Motorists must yield to pedestrians crossing at crosswalks, per Pennsylvania law, and can be cited for failure to yield, Bunty said.

Before crossing, pedestrians should not assume a vehicle will yield to them, and should look left, right, left, to cross a roadway.

In downtown Hanover, many crossings at traffic lights have pedestrian signals, which can be activated by pedestrians to allow them to cross the roadway safely with visual and audible signals, Bunty said.

One tip shared by Bowman for pedestrians was considering using high-visibility clothing at night along roadways, to help improve one's visibility to motorists.

In several Hanover cases where the motorist was found to be at fault, distracted driving was found to be a factor, Bunty shared.

More information and tips on pedestrian safety, including the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, can be found on PennDot's website.

Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for The Evening Sun. Contact him at hjones@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Police partner with PennDot on pedestrian safety