For those of you who have been reading these posts for several months you know that I am a strong advocate of pedestrians in Nazareth and have frequently written about a lack of awareness by drivers.
Today I was stunned by an individual who drove through the intersection of New and E. Walnut (Tatamy Road) with the Crossing Guard in the middle and a child in the very crosswalk that he drove through.
Since I was the first car to pull up followed by an SUV across from me and then the red Pontiac (I believe) that disregarded the lives of two people, I had a pretty good view.
At 7:55 a.m. I pulled up to the stop sign on E. Walnut at S. New Street. The crossing guard was on the corner and a child, maybe 4th or 5th grade was alongside her. There was an SUV across the way and a car going south bound pulled up to the stop on S. New Street.
The crossing guard raised her sign pointing it at the car and held a hand in the direction of the SUV. She got to the middle and the child starting walking. This was when the car, a red Pontiac (I believe) with a male driver, dark hair about 45-50 years old, decided to drive through the intersection making a left hand turn toward the child, to get onto E. Walnut heading toward Tatamy.
I laid on my horn but he drove around the crossing guard not seeming to understand he should still be stopped.
He drove alongside my car and continued without hesitation. Unfortunately I couldn't get his plate number.
For the life of me I can't figure out what is so difficult to grasp about stop signs, cross walks, pedestrians, and crossing guards. You need to stop at a stop sign. You need to wait until the pedestrian is back on the sidewalk before you drive through the intersection, and you need to wait until the crossing guard leaves the intersection before you can proceed.
We discussed this at a previous Council meeting and I'm going to raise the issue again tonight. We not only need to improve the markings at intersections, but we need to use police enforcement to make it safe for pedestrians. This means fining people for rolling through stop signs, speeding in town, and driving through intersections when people are in the crosswalks.
2 comments:
Things like this happen 100 times in Nazareth daily and as I said before....where are the police. I never see the police, not on my drive into work and not on my drive home...the only time I see them is when there are 2 of them parked together having a conversation and this also applies to Upper Nazareth Police. Broad st and the Broad st extention is DANGEROUS! Whey aren't the police around. There are numerous accidents on Broad st weekly. No one enforces the speed limit and when there are accidents NO ONE GETS CITED. We have schools and daycare centers all over the area and the sidewalks aren't safe when people are doing 50mph through town. I stated before that I called MR Ruch about this and never received a phone call back. It shouldn't take a tradgedy for our public servants to wake up.
Traffic safety in Nazareth is horribe and it continues to get worse.
Lets enforce or traffic laws and make Nazareth a safer place while at the same time get some much needed revenue.
Joe B
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