That pedestrian crossing the road may not be your buddy: he may be an undercover police officer.  On a single day alone, Seattle police handed out tickets for 1 in 6 crossings, amounting to 21 tickets.  This is in response to a surge in Seattle pedestrian collisions. (See Know the rules of the road? for an earlier post on this subject.)  The damage for the offending driver?  $101.  Pretty affordable “education” program.  Below is the article from King 5 News.

Seattle mayor, police team up to stop pedestrian accidents

05:40 PM PDT on Thursday, August 18, 2005

By CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – Seattle Police and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels have teamed up to end crosswalk collisions. The city sent a message to drivers and young people Thursday: Follow the rules!

“You have to be careful that car is following the rules too,” said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who went back to school to teach. “You have to be careful to look both ways.”

The question and answer session at Loyal Heights Community Center is just part of a two-pronged approach to end crosswalk collisions. The mayor’s pedestrian safety campaign continued with the education and enforcement.

Seattle Police Sergeant Larry Nygard led an undercover crosswalk crackdown. “Drivers are forgetting that they need to give the pedestrian the right of way in the crosswalk,” said Nygard. Traffic officers were issuing $101 citations for drivers who sped through occupied crosswalks.

The citywide enforcement and education effort is the reaction to a series of car-pedestrian accidents involving children. A driver hit a 12-year-old in March at 15th Avenue Northwest. Another driver seriously injured an 11-year-old boy in May on Stoneway.

Seattle Police say expect the pedestrian safety program to continue, and more emphasis placed on it as kids get closer to the first day of school. SPD says it has conducted six of those crosswalk emphasis operations and they’ve handed out some 400 tickets to people who’ve failed to yield the right of way to pedestrians.

Seattle police handed out 21 failure to yield tickets Thursday, and that amounted to one for every six pedestrian crossings.