Columnist Susan Snyder: Pedestrians need to be safeguarded

Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001 | 8:22 a.m.

It started Jan. 17 with a 77-year-old man who was killed by a car while trying to walk across Rancho Drive.

Police noted he was not inside a marked crosswalk.

Feb. 13, Stephanie Paulin, 28, was hit by a flatbed truck on Valley View Boulevard. Her sons ages 7 and 4 survived. The driver left.

Police noted the driver may not have known he'd hit three people.

Prattle. Painted lines and lame excuses don't bring back dead people.

"There's this attitude immediately that, 'They're not in a crosswalk, so oh well,' " said Erin Breen, of the Safe Communities Partnership at University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Traffic Research Center. "The uniform vehicle code says you must exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian."

What we need is more "do care" and a uniform human decency code that reminds us "pedestrians" are people who walk. People with families, friends and hopes.

Feb. 22, Stephen Allshouse, 12, at Eastern and Searles avenues.

March 1, Josephine Sbarra, 57, on Tropicana Avenue.

March 15, a 52-year-old man, on North Martin Luther King Boulevard.

March 16, a 58-year-old woman, on Fremont Street.

April 6, a 36-year-old woman on Flamingo Road.

The good news is that the traffic center has snagged a $973,000 federal grant to help find and fix some of the local intersections that are most dangerous for people who walk.

April 17, Jorge Ortega, 4, Harris Avenue.

May 7, Walter Watkins, 58, Sunset and Middlegate roads.

May 13, Margarito Reyes-Sotelo, 31, Valley View Boulevard.

May 27, Faustino Palomar, 87, North Arthur Avenue.

The bad news is throwing money at the problem won't fix a big part of it -- us.

A state study of 1999's pedestrian deaths showed 87 percent of walkers who died were Nevadans, as were 84 percent of the motorists who hit them. If these were tourists, we wouldn't have a pedestrian fatality problem.

June 1, a 70-year-old man, North Main Street.

June 9, an 80-year-old man, East Sahara Avenue.

June 17, Clayton Valenta, 58, Boulder Highway.

June 19, Lee Moran Jr., 8, Twain Avenue and Cambridge Street.

June 28, Harvey Lockett, 87, Lake Mead Boulevard and D Street.

July 1, a 39-year-old man, South Main Street.

July 3, a 44-year-old woman, U.S. Highway 95.

July 4, Elizabeth Flynn, 58, Third Street and East Ogden Avenue.

July 25, a 31-year-old man, Lake Mead Drive.

Tell the feds their money can't get here fast enough.

Aug. 31, a 40-year-old woman, Tropicana Avenue.

Sept. 30, a 41-year-old man, East Cheyenne Avenue.