OCPD Shares Final Results From Pedestrian Safety Stings

OREGON CITY, OR — The Oregon City Police Department's third and final pedestrian safety operation of 2018 saw 24 drivers stopped at the intersection in front of the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on Monday, according to OCPD spokesman John Fetzer. Among the drivers stopped, 18 received citations, he said.

The pedestrian safety operation was the last in a series of similar operations conducted around the city since July, all of which were funded by a grant from Oregon Impact, a Milwaukie-based nonprofit that "provides educational experiences to end impaired and distracted driving," according to its website.

The focus of the pedestrian safety operations was just that: to educate drivers and help raise awareness of Oregon's pedestrian right-of-way laws, Fetzer said. For each operation, OCPD officers used a pedestrian decoy while another officer watched for traffic violations, radioing his observations to yet another officer in a marked police car who would ultimately make the stop.

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Officers were given discretion at each operation for choosing whether to issue a ticket or warning.

The first safety operation July 6 at the intersection of Seventh and John Adams streets, next to Carnegie Park and the library, saw 36 drivers stopped, 25 citations issued, and nine warnings given. The second operation on Aug. 10 at the intersection of Linn Avenue and Williams Street saw 22 drivers stopped, 17 citations issued, and 10 warnings given.

The third operation only saw six warnings given for the 24 drivers stopped, Fetzer said, noting 82 drivers passed through the safety operation zone successfully by stopping for the pedestrian decoy. Of the 18 citations issued, eight were for failing to stop or remained stopped for a pedestrian, four were for driving while using a mobile communication device, one was for no insurance, another one was for driving with a suspended driver’s license, and four were issued to folks not wearing seatbelts.

The results from each of the three safety operations conducted in 2018 show little change in drivers' responses. However, all three were more promising than a pedestrian safety sting at the Seventh and John Adams streets intersection conducted in August 2017, which saw 43 stops and more than 60 citations issued.

Calls to the Oregon City Police Department regarding this series of pedestrian safety operations were not immediately returned.

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