St. George Police Launch Campaign To Improve Pedestrian Safety

The St. George City Police Department has seen too many tragedies involving pedestrians and crosswalks and their officers are determined to do something about it.

Just in the past year, several pedestrians have died in St. George and eve one death is too many.

So SGPD is embarking on a blitz of sorts, focusing in on crosswalks and pedestrian safety.

"During the month of July, the St. George Police Department will be conducting enforcement activities at several crosswalks throughout the city to help bring awareness to pedestrian laws and safety.

"Officers assigned to these areas will only address violations directly related to crosswalks and pedestrian safety. Enforcement activities will include citations, written warnings, and providing educational materials to violators."

Special task forces will be assigned to these locations on certain dates. The goal is not to raise money for the city, but to try and save lives and raise awareness of potential problems:

• 300 East 700 South
• 2100 W 2000 N
• Desert Hills Dr and Brigham Rd
• 100 N Valley View Dr
• 100 S 200 E
• 100 S 400 E
• 350 N 2450 E

Every year in the past 15 years, about 7,000 pedestrians were killed on streets in the United States -- that's over 100,000 casualties -- and many of those were actually walking in a designated crosswalk.

Utah checks in at a rate of 1.29 deaths per 100,000 people when it comes to pedestrian fatalities.

The worst state for this problem is New Mexico, with 4.82 deaths per 100,000, Louisiana (3.98) and Florida (3.75) are also quite high in pedestrian deaths

The safest state for pedestrians is New Hampshire at 0.58 deaths per 100,000 people in that New England state.

Nationwide, the average pedestrian death rate is 2.23 per 100,000 people.

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