Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day Today

The 8th Annual Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day is being observed in Arkansas Wednesday, Oct. 12.

The Associated Student Government is organizing student groups as volunteers to monitor crosswalks across campus, while Facilities Management workers will monitor the crosswalk near their building on Razorback Road. University of Arkansas Police will be patrolling the various crosswalks as well, and ticketing violators.

Similar crosswalk activities will be going on in Fayetteville and in towns and cities across the state.

Arkansas law requires drivers to stop for pedestrians crossing in a designated crosswalk on the University of Arkansas campus, and the main purpose of Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day is to help drivers understand that law.  It is also an opportunity to remind all university members that the law requires pedestrians to use the crosswalks, as well. Finally, it’is a reminder that pedestrians should use caution when entering a crosswalk: don't assume a driver will stop. Look left, right, and left again before crossing.

During educational activities surrounding the day, volunteers ask pedestrians “Why wouldn’t someone stop for you in a crosswalk?” The question is geared to make people think of all the reasons they should look both ways before entering a crosswalk.

Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day in Arkansas was founded eight years ago in Fayetteville in an effort to keep pedestrians and motorists safe at crosswalks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 4,092 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in the United States in 2009, 36 of them in Arkansans. The good news is that those numbers are down from the previous year.

The goal is, with more events like Crosswalk Safety Awareness Day, that those numbers will continue to drop.