Police Bust Careless Drivers in Pedestrian Sting

By Matt Smith Wed., Jan. 12 2011 at 4:32 PM

In this pedestrian mecca, it seems incongruous that drivers would be so oblivious to pedestrians walking in the crosswalk.

But they are.

And that made these police officers' job easy. The San Francisco Police Department ran a sting operation posing as pedestrians at Grove and Divisadero Streets Wednesday, where they collared one scofflaw after another.

"You can get going pretty fast through here if you make the lights," said one of two decoy officers who spent the sunny midday sauntering back and forth through the crosswalk in front of Planet Earth, a growing supplies store.
Five squad cars and two motorcycles lined up on Grove shortly after 11 a.m., like taxis at the airport. They took off one-by-one, sirens blazing, as motorists invariably failed to stop. We caught a few of those busts on videotape.

You'll see the decoy officers ease into the street, a car will blow by, and then get nabbed. Sweet!

We take two girls to school through this intersection every morning. So we're thankful for SFPD's efforts to ease this danger zone.

Here's to you, men and women in blue.

Tags:

Collared, Cops, Divisadero, Grove, Mecca, Pedestrian, San Francisco, Sting

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Joe Placer

There are a lot of drivers who have a least doubtful driving style. Unfortunately, they're not aware that their careless driving style can affect other people that are present on the street, as pedestrians, or even other drivers. That's why the police needs to take this kind of measures, so they can ensure the streets are safe.

Gneiss

To those people below who think it's uncool for SFPD to nab drivers who go through marked crosswalks, the main problem is too much speed. If the car drivers were going slowly enough (20-25 mph), then they would have plenty of time to stop for the pedestrians. Let's remember that the speed LIMIT is 25 mph. That doesn't mean travel at 25 mph, but max out at that speed if the conditions warrant it. They definately don't warrant it if there are crosswalks in the street. Don't drive like you are in a rerun of Dirty Harry out there.

mattymatt

I've been inches away from getting hit by a car in that crosswalk. There's no light and no stop sign, so drivers normally just blow right through without slowing, even if there's a person in their way. It would be lovely if the SFPD came back and did this several times a month.

Perlerorneq

it's Plant'It Earth

Patrick

Crosswalks are hard to see. I agree drivers should do that but just put a stop sign there. A Crosswalk is an invitation to disaster. How bout bustin criminals, like the kids who scope out cars during the day to come back at night and break in.

Roy Crisman

Crosswalks exist any time 2 streets intersect at something like a 90 degree angle. Some of the crosswalks are marked with white paint (or yellow near a school), but it's still a crosswalk if it isn't painted.

Michael Smith

The crosswalk is very clearly marked and even has big fluorescent signs saying Yield to Peds. Plus as with every intersection the cars are supposed to stop for pedestrians. The problem is that the drivers don't bother to stop even though the situation is really clear. And as for scurvy's comment, there is no light at that intersection!

And 700 peds are injured by cars every year in SF and Patrick thinks it is more important to go after kids breaking into cars???

Sprague

(I was actually trying to comment on the entire article and not necessarily anyone's comments.) I also live nearby and support this pedestrian sting. I've frequently tried to cross here with kids in tow and most drivers ignore the presence of pedestrians (even when we're on the island in the middle of the street). This is clearly unsafe for many reasons. On Sundays, the popular Farmers Market generates a lot of foot traffic at this location. Grove Street has a bike lane and if any intersection is in need of drivers being cautious and aware of crossing peds and bikes it is such a location. Very happy to see the SFPD being proactive (rather than waiting for an accident to happen before something is done)! Thank you to them.

scurvy

Those weren't even the egregious crosswalk violators. Those were going with a green light during traffic. I'd prefer if they went after people turning left/right into the crosswalk rather than just failing to stop for someone in a crosswalk while having a green. That's low SFPD.