By Sergeant Sean Ahlers, Rockaway Beach Police Department
On April 17th, from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM there will be a Pedestrian Safety Exercise conducted by Rockaway Police Department. Oregon Impact grant funding will allow for additional officers on duty to conduct this exercise. Officers will be monitoring cars for proper compliance with Oregon pedestrian laws as they relate to crosswalks. The officers will be looking for cars to stop appropriately for pedestrians in crosswalks along with other vehicles trying to pass cars already stopped for the pedestrians.
This will be the first of several pedestrian safety operations the Rockaway Beach Police Department will implement in 2018. The grant received by the department will allow for a similar safety operation to be conducted once each month through September 2018. The posted speed limit in the areas where the operations will be focused is 30 MPH. Information supplied by Oregon Impact shows the risk of a pedestrian sustaining a severe injury from being struck by a vehicle at that speed is 50%.
In Rockaway Beach, crosswalks only involve two travel lanes and no pedestrian-specific signals. Therefore, the following applies at all marked and unmarked crosswalks in Rockaway Beach: A vehicle must stop and remain stopped until the pedestrian(s) have cleared the lane the vehicle is traveling in or turning into, and the pedestrian(s) have cleared the lane adjacent to the lane the vehicle is traveling in or turning into.
If you have questions about these projects, please feel free to contact Sergeant Sean Ahlers at the Rockaway Beach Police Department or by phone at (503)355-2252.