AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — After the death of a 12-year-old boy in an Aurora crosswalk, police told FOX31 about traffic enforcement they’re doing to keep it from happening again.
This week, we got to see the operation in action. Data from the start of the year through Aug. 12 shows 172 pedestrian crashes in Aurora, with eight being fatal.
“We’ve had a lot of really recent serious accidents,” Sgt. Bill Hummel said. “Certainly, the ones that get the attention of everybody are when we have teenagers and kids are hit and killed in the community. And it’s just not acceptable, especially at a time where people are distracted while they’re driving. They’re speeding at 100% of these are in some way, shape or form preventable. And so that’s what we’re trying to do, is get through to people.”
FOX31 watched about an hour of pedestrian traffic enforcement with an Aurora police crew on Thursday, where Illif Avenue meets Chambers Road. Hummel says grant money allows the department to conduct enforcement year-round in an effort to reduce traffic injuries and deaths. You can watch the operation in the video above.
“The vast majority of the enforcement that we do is not punitive, it’s actually educational,” Hummel said. “We’ll have a brief conversation with a pedestrian in the right of way, maybe with a sign or stepping out into traffic and just try to educate them on this serious dangers and how many accidents were actually happening involving pedestrians.”
In around an hour, FOX31 saw six people spotted and stopped; one got a ticket for not having insurance.
A traffic operation on Wednesday resulted in:
- 22 pedestrian violation summonses
- Six summonses for failing to yield to pedestrians
- Five other traffic summonses
- Four warrant arrests
- Three traffic warnings
“You’re you’re going to contact people who you might have just contacted them for jaywalking and it’s something benign, but you find down the road they have a warrant, something more serious than that,” Hummel said.
At a six-lane intersection, officers said a good rule of thumb is to let the pedestrian pass the double yellow lines before you start turning.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
