OCTOBER 6, 2015, 11:10 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015, 6:54 AM
BY JOHN CICHOWSKI
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
After 45 pedestrian deaths in two years, the Bergen County sheriff, prosecutor and dozens of other public officials gathered in Hackensack on Tuesday to put walkers as well as drivers on notice:
Starting this month, whether on foot or behind the wheel, obey pedestrian laws or expect a ticket.
“I’m asking all police departments to issue summonses even for jaywalking,” Sheriff Michael Saudino announced to a crowd at a news conference on the steps of the county Justice Complex.
The reason: “A week doesn’t go by that I don’t get a phone call about a citizen being struck and killed in our county,” added Prosecutor John Molinelli.
Death counts explain much of this rationale:
A total of 21 lives were lost while crossing county thoroughfares in 2013 (more than double the 2012 count of 9) and 24 more deaths were added in 2014 — the most in at least 16 years, according to state police records. The percentage increases accounted for a higher rate of carnage than the statewide pedestrian death toll, which reached 170 last year, the most since the 2002 count of 176.
“We have to do better,” Saudino said in an interview. “Drivers and pedestrians both need to be better educated, and our engineers have to look closely at some of our roadways to make them safer.”
For two weeks starting now, motorists will begin seeing “Focus here” billboards that picture a family at a crosswalk alongside a photo of a phone that accompanies this slogan — “Not here.”