METROPOLIST
Vehicles 38, Pedestrians 0
Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page B03
About 90 pedestrians are killed each year on the streets of the Washington region. Think about that: almost eight a month. Dead.
Twenty-two have been killed in just the past three months.
  (By Rich Pedroncelli -- Associated Press) |
And that doesn't include the critically injured, the maimed, the bruised. Many are injured here each year. By cars, sport-utility vehicles, buses, trucks, and even bicycles and police vehicles.
We drive too fast, we dart into the street, we're distracted by work, by cellphones, by iPods. Is it worth your life?
The District, Maryland and Virginia, in a campaign called "Steel vs. Flesh -- It's No Contest," are cracking down on jaywalkers with $10 tickets and on drivers who don't yield to walkers with $50 fines. Police say 38 people have been hit since January. Here are some of the cases.
Killed
Jan. 5: A car kills an 80-year-old woman in a parking garage at Arlington's Ballston Common Mall.
Jan. 6: A car kills a 43-year-old woman crossing Route 236 in Lexington Park.
Jan. 7: A car fatally injures a woman standing behind her car after a minor accident on Route 7 in Baileys Crossroads.
Jan. 12: A pickup truck kills a 35-year-old man jaywalking on Columbia Pike in Falls Church.
Jan. 14: A woman is killed after lying in front of a bus on Richmond Highway in Beacon Hill.
Jan. 16: A Metrobus making a left turn kills a 24-year-old woman in Mount Pleasant.
Jan. 17: A car kills a 25-year-old woman walking against the light in a crosswalk on Algonkian Parkway in Sterling.
