Collins' son criticizes TPD's pedestrian safety operation

Police officers blanketed downtown Tampa this morning, handing out citations to motorists and pedestrians who ran afoul of traffic laws at intersections. The operation was part of a new focus on pedestrian safety, police said.

But the whole show rang hollow for Ed Collins, whose father, Leroy Collins Jr., was killed while biking on Hyde Park Avenue last month and no charges were filed against the driver.

"It was just weird," he said, "here's TPD grandstanding about the great pedestrian safety they have and my father was killed and they did not even issue a ticket."

Leroy Collins Jr., son of a popular former governor, retired admiral and head of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, was killed just before dawn on July 29. The driver of the sport-utility vehicle that struck the 75-year-old biker was not cited.

"If you're a pedestrian," Ed Collins said, "it's like you're wild game to be hunted. And, it seems like TPD is complacent."

Investigators have called the fatality an accident and said they would not cite the driver.

The operation Monday morning was to spotlight an influx of federal dollars to bolster pedestrian safety. Ironically, during the operation, a motorist struck a pedestrian in a crosswalk, sending the injured man to Tampa General Hospital with a broken leg, police said.

Federal money flowed into the Tampa Bay area recently - $430,000, in fact - and is being doled out by the Florida Department of Transportation in a bid to make nice between motor vehicles and folks on foot.

"Law enforcement officers are the front line on the street," Florida DOT District Secretary Don Skelton said.

Tampa police and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office will get $100,000 each to pay for overtime, she said.

Most of the money will be meted out to law enforcement agencies in nine Bay area jurisdictions to pay overtime for officers enforcing pedestrian laws at targeted intersections, said Kris Carson, a spokeswoman with the state DOT.

"This is the largest safety campaign we've ever undertaken," Carson said this morning.

Paying for enforcement of existing laws is essential, she said, and that's why the bulk of the federal money is going toward salaries of officers and deputies.

"Law enforcement is a critical part of this campaign," she said.

Education and engineering are the other components and those aspects are being funded by the state, Carson said. The state has allocated $3.4 million to retrofit 300 targeted intersections in the Tampa Bay area, meaning crosswalks will get new paint, medians will be raised and troublesome lights will get fixed.

Between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. today, Tampa police officers began using up the federal money in the downtown district.

During that time, David James, 50, a lawyer from Brandon, was in a crosswalk when he was struck by a vehicle driven by Jenny Barquero, 57, of Tampa, who was en route to answer a summons for jury duty, police said. Barquero was handed a $101 citation for failing to yield, police said.

Most pedestrians struck by motor vehicles are not in crosswalks, police said.

"A recent study shows 70 percent of accidents involving pedestrians happen in mid-block," said police Cpl. William Shaw, "where people are not supposed to cross the street."

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region is second to Orlando-Kissimmee in pedestrian deaths nationally, according to Safe Traffic Policy Partnership and Transportation for America.

While the crime rate in Tampa is dropping, incidents of pedestrian accidents have been on the upswing since 2005, police Chief Jane Castor said.

Enforcement runs hand in hand with education, she said.

"If we can get pedestrians to stay in the crosswalks," she said, "we can reduce the number of accidents and fatalities."

Castor mentioned the Collins accident as a recent tragedy that illustrated the problems for pedestrians on Tampa streets.

This morning, officers handed out 50 warnings to pedestrians who were not crossing in crosswalks or crossing against the traffic lights, and 20 citations were issued to motorists, mostly for failure to yield, police said.

In the Tampa Bay region, 20 percent of traffic fatalities involve pedestrians, compared with 11 percent nationally, according to state DOT statistics. In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, more than 1,000 pedestrian accidents are reported each year - almost three a day.

David Strickland, an administrator with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said with more and more people walking and bicycling to work, pedestrian safety is a new priority.

With the increase of pedestrians, "we have to make sure that it's a safe mode of transportation," Strickland said.

"Today's event is a step in the right direction for improving pedestrian safety and saving lives in the Tampa Bay area."

In 2008, about 37,000 people were killed in traffic accidents nationally. About 12 percent were pedestrian fatalities, according to federal highway data. Nearly 720 bicyclists were struck by motor vehicles and killed, almost two a day.

Tampa police Officer Greg Weekes, on a motorcycle this morning patrolling Jackson Street on the east side of downtown, said some motorists don't know they're supposed to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk.

"A lot of them either don't see the pedestrian in the crosswalk or sometimes they just blatantly disregard the law and they have better things to do," Weekes said. "Not paying attention? Correct."