The Orlando Police Department (OPD) and Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSO) will be conducting a series of summer pedestrian enforcement details in June, citing drivers for failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, as Florida law requires. During enforcement actions, dubbed Operation Best Foot Forward, plain clothes officers will cross the street in marked crosswalks at intersections with high pedestrian activity. Officers will stop those vehicles that do not yield to pedestrians and those drivers may face a fine of $164, and three (3) points on the driver’s license.
This is the fourth high visibility pedestrian enforcement action since the launch of Best Foot Forward in May 2012. Since then, OPD and OCSO have issued more than 1,300 tickets and given over 3,800 warnings to drivers for failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.
OPD and OCSO enforcement details, along with engineering improvements and education, are part of Best Foot Forward for pedestrian safety efforts to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths by half in five years. By employing this “Triple E” approach of engineering, education and enforcement, yield rates have jumped from 8% to 28% on roads 35mph and less.
The mission is to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths by half over five years. To learn more, go to www.iyield4peds.org.
