May 14, 2021 2 min read

Washington police partnered with the state Department of Transportation Thursday to hold a pedestrian safety enforcement event at the intersection of South Main and East Maiden streets.

“A lot of people forget the fact that when pedestrians are on the roadway, we need to be aware of them as they cross the road because they have no protection,” said Jay Ofsanik, PennDOT’s press officer for District 12. “They don’t have the benefit of airbags or seat belts and they’re very vulnerable in crashes.”

Two Washington police officers in plain clothes walked the intersection at Main and Maiden for four hours Thursday, with a marked vehicle and patrolman positioned nearby to issue any citations or warnings to motorists not yielding.

“Really we’re not enforcing too much; we’re just using this time to educate the motorists and pedestrians,” Washington police Chief Robert Wilson said.

In the last five years, there have been 31 pedestrian crashes reported in the city of Washington, four of them fatal. Ofsanik said that last year, 147 pedestrians died in Pennsylvania. That’s why the state set money aside for grants for municipalities to conduct pedestrian safety enforcement events.

“A lot of time budgets are really tight for your departments to do enforcement,” he said. “They have guys out there doing traffic enforcement as they see it, but to try to focus on a specific area can be difficult.”

Washington police applied for a two-year grant through PennDOT to provide $1,800 to fund the enforcement event, and others that will occur throughout those two years.

Wilson said Jefferson Avenue along with Main, Maiden and Chestnut streets are some of the busiest in the city. Where officers were stationed Thursday, Wilson said, is a “very populated pedestrian crossing point.”

Ofsanik said pedestrian crashes tend to occur more frequently in cities like Washington, which has a county courthouse and a college campus in its center.

“They happen right in the city proper, in the downtown area, and that’s generally where we see the biggest pedestrian problem,” he said. “With Washington & Jefferson here, during certain times of the year they have an abundance of college students who are pedestrians. So it’s very important for people to understand how important pedestrian safety is.”