SANTA MONICA—The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) will improve Bike & Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operations on Friday, November 14. The project will focus on enforcing primary collision factors which include motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.
According to a press release Canyon News received from the SMPD, they have organized the locations where pedestrian and bike collisions are common over the past five years, as well as the violation that led to those collisions. Officers will be prevalent in these areas hoping to lower the chances of deaths and injuries.
The officers will pay close attention to drivers speeding, making illegal turns, ignoring stop signs, failing to yield to pedestrians and other violations. The same traffic laws apply to bike riders. All bike riders should wear helmets and those under 18 years of age must wear helmets by law.
During the past three years, the SMPD has investigated 874 fatal and injury collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists. In 2012, 612 pedestrians and 124 bicyclists were killed in California; over 4,743 pedestrians and 726 bicyclists were killed nation-wide.
The Governors Highway Safety Association’s and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2012 data reports show that the state of California is the leading nation in bicyclist and pedestrian deaths.
