Media Contacts: Erik Linden @ DDOT, 202-671-2004 or Traci Hughes @ MPD, 202-727-9346

(Washington, DC) Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) are holding a pedestrian safety enforcement event in Northwest tomorrow.

The campaign will feature crosswalk enforcement targeting motorists who don’t stop for pedestrians. It will also target motorists who are speeding and pedestrians who cross against signals and endanger themselves in traffic.

Tomorrow’s enforcement will take place along Wisconsin Avenue—a high pedestrian accident zone. The location is a heavily-used crosswalk without signals where drivers frequently fail to give pedestrians the right of way. It is also in the vicinity of one of the District’s pedestrian fatalities this year.

Background: Twenty five pedestrians have been killed so far this year in the District, up from 17 in all of 2006. Several fatalities were primarily caused by drivers failing to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, or by drivers passing vehicles stopped for pedestrians in a crosswalk.

Recent analysis of high pedestrian crash intersections in the District shows that fewer than half of all drivers yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

A pedestrian hit by a driver traveling at 40 mph has a 90 percent chance of dying. A pedestrian hit by a driver traveling at 25 mph has a 15 percent chance of dying.

Who		Mayor Adrian M. Fenty Chief Cathy Lanier, MPD Emeka Moneme, Director, DDOT
What		Live Pedestrian Safety Enforcement in Northwest
When		Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 9:15 am
Where		Wisconsin Avenue, NW, at Idaho Avenue, NW