FORT MYERS, Fla. — Fort Myers Police Department is seeing a rise in car crashes and it has a lot to do with people walking or crossing the street.
Sergeant Kristi Neroni, Fort Myers Police Department tells Fox 4 since January, the city of Fort Myers has seen over 47 accidents involving people crossing or walking on the road.
In 2020, they had 36 of these accidents in the same time period.
Neroni says a hot spot for car crashes is on Mcgregor Blvd, and its due in part to the amount of foot traffic brought in from surrounding homes and businesses.
So to help keep people safe, Fort Myers PD runs in-person surveillance and tests to see if people are following traffic safety tips.
“We come out, in uniform, we hit it, and then we cross and if a vehicle almost hits us we pull them over and have an educational talk,” said Neroni.
She says many of these accidents are caused by either people or drivers being under the influence and feels the spike could be from more people getting out of the house.
Fox 4 also wanted to find who tends to be at fault when these accidents happen and Neroni tells us it usually falls to the person on the street.
“We will still have people that won’t walk down to the traffic light to cross using the crosswalk and they will just dart across traffic, and then we have a problem. I encourage, if there is a light or some type of signal provided, to use that,” she said.
If you are involved in an accident, Fort Myers police say it is important for you to immediately pull over and stay with the other person involved until police arrive.
if you don't, it’s considered a felony in the state of Florida.
