Carson City Sheriff’s deputies gave out about 65 citations during a pedestrian safety operation Thursday.
As a part of the statewide campaign Joining Forces, the Carson City Motor Unit conducted an operation to teach motorists about paying attention and yielding to pedestrians.
“Our hope is to educate motorists that pedestrians have rights just as much as vehicles,” said Sgt. Earl Mays.
The department used a volunteer, clad in neon orange, to repeatedly walk across a variety of crosswalks in Carson to make sure drivers were stopping.
“It is dangerous, you definitely have to be ready to do some dance moves (to get out of the way of vehicles),” said Don Quilici, with the Sheriff’s Office. “There are people who, you step out and they just don’t see you ... so it is good to get people to slow down and pay attention.”
Quilici was the volunteer pedestrian who dodged vehicles for the sake of education.
“There were some skid marks and some oops faces from the drivers for sure,” Quilici said. “But it is all about the education, something like that makes you keep your eyes open as a driver.”
Deputies gave warnings and wrote citations for those who didn’t stop for the pedestrian, as a way to educate motorists.
“All of it was just drivers not paying attention or they just weren’t informed on the laws to stop or not,” Mays said.
For motorists, if a pedestrian is crossing in a marked crosswalk, they’re required to stop and wait until the pedestrian has crossed onto the other half of the median.
Quilici said he talked to fellow pedestrians who likened crossing the street to a death wish.
“They told me it is like putting their lives on the line just to cross the street,” Quilici said.
But this operation wasn’t just about making sure the motorists were paying attention, it was also to make sure pedestrians were educated on safe habits as well.
Mays said pedestrians need to make sure they’re using marked crosswalks, paying attention to make sure vehicles are in fact stopping. He said it’s also important the pedestrian is giving the vehicle a reasonable amount of time to stop as well before crossing and to always look left, right, left before crossing the street.
The deputies conducted the operation at Second and Roop, south Stewart and Carson streets.
Joining Forces is a campaign to reduce deaths on Nevada’s roadways.