EUGENE, Ore. – The Eugene Police Department is reminding drivers and pedestrians to keep an eye out for each other and take an active role in their own safety after conducting an operation to gauge how drivers and pedestrians interacted with crosswalks.
The Eugene Police Department said that as part of a special pedestrian safety operation at 17th Avenue and Hilyard Street, several members of their Traffic Safety Unit were stationed from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m on April 17. Police said traffic officers employed a decoy pedestrian, who walked back and forth in the marked crosswalk at the intersection to gauge how drivers and pedestrians interacted with the crosswalk. Police said they also set traffic cones near the intersection to allow drivers extra time and distance to react to the decoy pedestrian in the crosswalk.
According to Eugene police, 263 vehicles stopped in the appropriate manner during the two-hour operation, and traffic safety officers conducted 23 traffic stops. Police said these stops resulted in nine citations and more than 20 warnings. Those citations and warnings included failing to stop for pedestrians, speeding, driving uninsured, cellphone violations, failing to carry a drivers license, and more. Police said that on several occasions, the decoy and other pedestrians entered the crosswalk and had to jump back onto the sidewalk to dodge a vehicle that had failed to yield the right-of-way…