Grant will fund Fla. campaign aimed at protecting pedestrians

By Lorri Helfand
St. Petersburg Times

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Richard Plent walked his bike across busy Missouri Avenue last week, just a few hundred feet south of the crosswalk at Rosery Road. Within minutes, three other pedestrians crossed in the same spot, near a bus stop and Walmart parking lot.

They all made it across okay. But often pedestrians who jaywalk aren't so lucky.

"I see too many of these crashes that are so preventable," said Largo police Sgt. George Edmiston, who heads the department's traffic enforcement unit. In Pinellas, there are 3.24 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people, about twice the national average.

Read more on the St. Petersburg Times .