Metro Police investigators take measures at the scene of a fatal accident Thursday, March 5, 2015, on Boulder Highway. Two women were killed in the early morning accident.
Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015 | 2 a.m.
Grinning Metro Police officers staked out spots in front of a busy Wal-Mart on Boulder Highway shopping center Tuesday afternoon to get the message out about pedestrian safety.
“Them versus a 2,000-pound vehicle, they’re not going to win that equation,” Capt. Jack Owen of Metro’s Southeast Area Command said before the event.
The effort was already planned prior to a Las Vegas Strip crash that killed one woman and injured 36 people Sunday, coinciding with a larger discussion on pedestrian safety in the Las Vegas Valley.
“There’s so many components,” Owen said about the number of crashes in the valley this year. “There’s engineering, there’s just awareness.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Metro had investigated 121 traffic-related deaths this year, 14 of which occurred on Boulder Highway, generally from East Sahara Avenue to East Russell Road. Eight of those 14 incidents involved pedestrians and pedestrian error.
Last year, Metro investigated a total of 93 traffic-related fatalities, according to statistics from the department’s Traffic Bureau.
Amber Crise, 26, was taking a break from bell-ringing for the Salvation Army when police arrived at Walmart’s entrance, flyers in hand.
The flyers offered tips for pedestrian safety and explained the laws regarding driver and pedestrian responsibilities on the road.
Crise, who lives in the area, said she thinks drivers and pedestrians are both to blame for the string of fatal crashes on Boulder Highway.
“It makes me feel really sad that the community’s not looking out for each other,” she said.
With the Strip crash on her mind, Crise said she’d like to see more crossing guards to help children safely cross the road and greater police presence to possibly prevent the unthinkable.
“I heard about the Strip,” she said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen at any time.”
Pushing a shopping cart, 93-year-old Elizabeth C. Higgins stopped to chat with police outside the store’s entrance.
Higgins said with a laugh that the only place she’ll walk is to her car, but she also said she sees the impact of what she believes is a shortage of crosswalks in the area.
“They should have better crosswalks about a city block apart rather than a mile block apart,” she said.
As police prepared to pass out the flyers Tuesday, pedestrians jaywalked across Boulder Highway. If caught, a jaywalker can be cited and faces an average $195 fine, Owen said.
Improving an area for pedestrian traffic — whether it’s with a barrier on the Strip or a crosswalk on Boulder Highway — requires cooperation between police, the Nevada Department of Transportation, Clark County and possibly additional agencies, Metro spokesman Michael Rodriguez said.
“It’s not as if Metro can just construct a crosswalk,” he said.
Owen said progress is being made, even if it appears slow.
Police have been working with the transportation department to get additional traffic controls in some areas and are hoping for additional crosswalks in areas like South Nellis Boulevard and East Sun Valley Drive, he said.
But in areas near the Wal-Mart shopping center where the speed limit is 45 mph and the roadway is six lanes, pedestrians and drivers alike must be aware of possible risks, he said.
“Pedestrian safety is the responsibility of both the pedestrian and the motorist,” the flyers in his hand say. “Both cause crashes!”
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