By Deke Farrow
Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)
STANISLAUS COUNTY, Calif. — Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputies went undercover last week in Riverbank and Patterson to keep pedestrians safe and teach drivers a lesson. In this case, though, undercover couldn’t have been more in-your-face.
It went like this: A deputy dressed as a giant orange traffic cone would enter a crosswalk when oncoming drivers had ample time to stop. Those drivers who failed to yield quickly found motorcycle deputies pulling them over.
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Over two days of enforcement, one in each city, deputies cited 67 drivers for pedestrian violations and made two DUI arrests.
The video shows a few clips of a cone-clad deputy entering a crosswalk with, apparently, plenty of time for oncoming traffic to stop. Some drivers do, others don’t even slow down.
It has clips of motor deputies talking with drivers who’ve been pulled over. In one, a deputy asks, “You didn’t see my partner in the big orange cone in the middle of the crosswalk?” The driver responds that he did but couldn’t stop in time. “You had plenty of opportunity to stop and slow down, partner,” the deputy answers.
During the same stop, the deputy says to the driver, “You live in Modesto, right? You follow the news?” The driver responds that he does both, to which the deputy asks rhetorically, “How many people have died in the past week and a half ...?”
Reported collisions in the Modesto area this month include two Modesto High School students being struck the night of Oct. 9 in a Coffee Road crosswalk near Downey High School. Both died from their injuries. A 63-year-old man using a mobility wheelchair was struck and killed the morning of Oct. 1 near Claus Road and East Orangeburg Avenue. And an adult female pedestrian suffered “moderate to severe” injuries the afternoon of Oct. 18 while she was crossing Floyd Avenue when struck by a vehicle making a left turn onto Coffee Road.
The Sheriff’s Office post that included video of last week’s enforcement operation reads, “We remind all drivers to remain alert, yield to pedestrians, obey posted speed limits, and never drive under the influence. Together, we can help prevent tragedies and keep our communities safe.”
The operation was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, supporting pedestrian safety enforcement and education. It was conducted at a time of year — Halloween and the end of daylight-saving time — when pedestrian safety should be on the minds of all drivers.
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