Salinas Police crack down on drivers violating pedestrians’ right-of-way

A Salinas police officer in plain clothes wearing a bright orange shirt walked back and forth across the street in crosswalks at two locations, chosen because of a history of collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians.

Despite the crosswalk and bright clothing, dozens of drivers still got too close.

Officers made 61 traffic stops over a five hour period on August 25 th , writing 47 citations, according to the Salinas Police Department. Nine of those were for driving while talking on a cell phone.

In some cases, the traffic stops involved people not taking part in the sting who were just trying to cross the street, when vehicles violated their right-of-way, police say.

“Officers could have written even more tickets but there were times that all the officers were busy writing tickets at the same time,” according to the press release issued by SPD.

The sting happened in two locations: the crosswalks at Natividad Road and Sorrentini Drive and North Main Street and Chaparral Streets.

Police say a pedestrian was killed at or near those crosswalks over the last few years.