Local & State Headlines

'Crosswalk sting' a warning

• Officers issued 73 warnings and three tickets during a downtown crosswalk sting Tuesday morning, authorities say.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Albany Safe Communities Coordinator Michelle DeMott traversed Albany crosswalks and dodged inattentive motorists so many times Tuesday morning that she rubbed a blister on her foot.

“There were a couple of near misses,” DeMott said, taking a break to put a bandage around her toe. “But that’s why we’re here.”

Throughout the midmorning period, DeMott served as a decoy pedestrian, crossing two of the downtown area’s most dangerous sections of asphalt while a police spotter would point out lawbreaking vehicles to officers who would then issue warnings to the drivers.

The officers and DeMott first monitored the crosswalk on Broad Avenue across from the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, before moving over to the crosswalk connecting the Government Center with the Dougherty County Courthouse.

According to DeMott, the key issue behind the sting is to alert drivers that pedestrians are prone to cross legally at those points and that they have the right-of-way according to the law.

“If you don’t stop, you’re breaking the law,” DeMott said.

According to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, motorists by law are required to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk when the pedestrian is walking inside the crosswalk lines.

If a pedestrian is crossing a four-lane road, such as that stretch of Broad Avenue and Pine Avenue, motorists in the two lanes where the pedestrian is immediately walking must stop, DeMott said.

If the pedestrian is in the lane closest to a motorist’s side of the road, those drivers must also stop.

Phyllis Banks, the spokesperson for the Albany Police Department, said that officers issued 73 warnings and three tickets, although she said information as to the specific breakdown of the citations was not immediately available Tuesday.

Daisha Beverly, a worker in the state court clerk’s office at the Dougherty County Courthouse, said that something needs to be done about the inattentive drivers traveling down Pine Avenue.

“I’ll nearly get hit and will point up to the sign hanging over the crosswalk so that those driver’s know that they’re supposed to stop,” Beverly said. “Sooner or later, someone is going to get really hurt.”

Beverly said that early morning, midday and afternoon rush hour are the peak times for problems in the crosswalk.

She chalks a lot of the problem with distracted drivers who don’t take time to notice people crossing the street.

“You see people just talking on their cell phones and a lot of the time they don’t even see you,” Beverly said.

In addition to drivers, officers were also speaking with jaywalkers who crossed the road outside of the crosswalk.

“We had 33 pedestrian crashes last year,” DeMott said. “We have to educate people, where there are high-foot traffic areas, about the law so that we can try and cut that number.”

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