Tagged: traffic fatalities

To make city streets safer, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced a plan to step up the number of speed zones monitored automatically by radar and photo enforcement – while urging everyone to slow down and show some "empathy."

Cars and pedestrians collided fatally in Seattle 90 times between 2001 and 2009 – killing 104 pedestrians. The advocacy group Walking in Seattle reports that 28 of the fatal incidents could have been prevented by rechannelization or road diets.

The pedestrian-friendly group says Seattle should consider putting the streets where these 28 collisions occurred on a road diet. The city of Seattle has one street on the books.

How do you convince someone not to text or talk on the cell phone while  driving?  How about an in-your- face reminder of what can happen if you do?  That's the tactic Seattle Police have been using this week. 

They've been parking a black Honda, with the driver's side smashed in, outside area high schools.  A Tumwater teenager, Heather Lerch, died in the car in February of 2010 while texting and driving.