Editorial: Bring safety to crosswalks

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2005 | 8:52 a.m.

Crossing guards for schoolchildren in the Las Vegas Valley are provided by police departments, whose limited budgets cannot support the number of guards that are actually needed.

The result is that many adults, generally those who have children or grandchildren walking to school in their neighborhoods, act as volunteers at intersections on school days. Even this effort is not covering all of the busy streets that children have to traverse.

This is one reason why Nevada is among the worst states in the country when it comes to pedestrian safety. Other reasons include extra-wide intersections to accommodate our growth, faded paint at many crosswalks and driver negligence.

The Las Vegas Sun has published numerous stories in the past few years recounting the heavy statistics involving pedestrian deaths and injuries here. The reporting caught the eye of the Legislature, which in the past session tightened penalties against reckless divers. Included was the addition of a vehicular manslaughter law, which could send an inattentive driver to jail for six months.

Penalties, however, are largely an after-the-fact solution. They may, over time, act as a deterrent, but how many deaths and injuries will occur before the word has spread? We believe in tougher penalties for reckless drivers, but we also believe in up-front measures aimed at prevention.

Two solutions worthy of trying are lighted crosswalks and brightly colored flags that pedestrians can hold aloft while crossing. Many cities are embedding motion-detecting fixtures into their crosswalks that automatically light up when pedestrians approach. Both night and day the fixtures are effective in getting the attention of drivers.

Another tactic, being used in such cities as Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City and Madison, Wis., is to place flags at either end of intersections. Pedestrians pick them up on one side, wave them as they cross, and deposit them on the other side. This has also proven effective in reducing vehicle-pedestrian accidents.

Such measures are in keeping with the old saying: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."