Transportation safety? The body count in Brevard keeps going up | John Torres

We couldn't even make it one day.

On the very same day we kicked off a week-long series of stories on transportation safety, two pedestrians were struck by a car in West Melbourne, one of them fatally.

They were walking along one of the busiest roads in Brevard County, West New Haven Avenue — also known as U.S. 192 — near the intersection of Meadow Lane and east of Minton Road. The driver is fully cooperating and no charges are expected to be filed, according to police.

Then, the very next day, a Wisconsin woman was killed after the vehicle in which she was a passenger ran off the roadway and collided with a fire hydrant just after noon on Courtenay Parkway on Merritt Island, according to Florida Highway Patrol. Both crashes are still under investigation.

On Friday morning there was another collision, this time with a train and a golf cart in the Barefoot Bay area. No details were available by the time this had to go to print but a buddy of mine with Spectrum News 13 told me the golf cart driver managed to escape serious injury.

Here we are, focusing on traffic and transportation safety and we're starting the week off with people dying on our roads. I guess it was unrealistic to think a new focus on transportation safety would have resulted in safer roadways right off the bat. Maybe it will happen ... in time.

Then again, who knows? I tend to agree with Georganna Gillette, executive director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization, when she says that the crux of road safety lies with those of us driving automobiles. I can't tell you how many times I have seen drivers staring at their phones while driving. But, the responsibility can't lie solely with car drivers.

Safeguarding our streets: We must prioritize lives on Brevard roadways | Opinion

On Monday, while driving south on SR A1A through Satellite Beach, I could see a motorcycle purposely swerving wildly from side to side in my rear-view mirror. A few moments later, with no regard to the posted 35 MPH speed limit, the driver zoomed past me then proceeded to pop a wheelie while keeping his legs extended in the air ahead of him. I looked on in amazement and horror.

Surely he belongs in the same category as the parents who let their young kids whiz around the county on e-bikes. These are basically children riding motorcycles.

Right now, the Florida laws overseeing the use of these electronic bikes are sorely lacking. In fact, Florida doesn't require an operator's license, registration, or insurance for those on e-bikes. The one basic restriction they have is that riders under the age of 16 must wear helmets. That's it?

More: E-bikes banned in South Florida town for 60 days, maybe longer. Could this happen here?

Leaders in Key Biscayne banned e-bikes in the South Florida community for 60 days following a fatal crash involving a 12-year-old riding an e-bike on a dark roadway. But it was the 66-year-old driver of the car who died. The Village of Key Biscayne has now reached out to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody for guidance on what to do. Key Biscayne's second 60-day ban expires next month.

In a letter to the editor this week, a Cocoa Beach man said: "Villainizing drivers and automobiles has become the tired go-to position of too many people unwilling to take responsibility for the chaos that has been allowed to develop on our roads and sidewalks due to the resistance to apply some common sense rules and laws."

Several other readers reached out to me and complained about signage throughout the county as well as poorly-lit roadways. Palm Bay readers complained that there aren't enough lanes on some of the major roads in the growing city. I was also surprised at how many emails I received this week from readers wanting to see more traffic enforcement by police.

Cyclists bemoaned the lack of shoulders, bike lanes and even sidewalks in some places. It can feel overwhelming and maybe it is. I just hope the Vision Zero initiative adopted by the SCTPO and supported by all 16 local municipalities, Brevard County, and the Brevard County School Board will start to yield dividends in lives saved.

Vision Zero emphasizes a focus on sharing responsibility between those who design the roads and those of us who use it. Another component: education for all of us who use the roadways.

Maybe that will eventually work. Maybe it won't. I just know it would be nice to go a week or two without us reporting about another person killed on our roads.

All I know is that it's difficult enough making it safely around town with all the traffic, different types of crosswalks from one town to the next, jaywalkers and distracted drivers. Now I have to worry about some 12-year-old kid riding an e-bike on the sidewalk and speeding through intersections? Or maniacs popping wheelies on SR A1A?

Maybe I'll just stay home.

Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @johnalbertorres.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard County traffic deaths, safety concerns have no easy fix