Police Chief Rob Lawson Explaining New Pedestrian Law And About Reflectors

hello I'm Chief Rob Lawson from the Lakewood Police Department and my purpose today in this recording is to talk about uh pedestrian safety we've had quite a few questions um and comments about the new law concerning um stopping for pedestrians who are crossing the street uh I get a lot of complaints uh every day uh from pedestrians and from motorists and it stems from some confusion about this new law the new Law requires drivers to come to a complete stop when they see a pedestrian stop off the curb whether there is crosswalk in place or not uh and this is at intersections obviously um main roads like Route 9 sometimes people will step off the road uh pedestrians should also use uh good judgment um and not stop off the road if they see cars coming down at a high rate of speed uh the speed limit there maybe 40 miles an hour and cars may not have time to stop if you just step off the curve and proceed across so please use some common uh sense in the evening please wear some kind of reflective clothing uh this is a problem particularly with the members of the Orthodox Community because they traditionally will uh dress in in dark clothing and it's very very difficult to see in the evening so wear those reflective belts um because they are a tremendous help for drivers to see you a lot of times cars going down the street it's not that they're refusing to stop for you it's just that they just don't see you I know myself when I drive home going down U uh Clifton Avenue in the evenings now in the dark I sometimes don't see people until they're well out into the intersection so please don't always assume a car can see you um to the to the drivers of the vehicles um you must take extra care if you see a car that stopped in the roadway to determine why he stopped you know just don't assume he's pulled over to talk to somebody or is picking up somebody who needs a ride um you should assume that he is stopping to let a pedestrian cross the street uh we've had a lot of near misses for cars that are stopped and people going around them not realizing that they are in fact stopping for a pedestrian so uh this this new law is important I think it will uh save a lot of pedestrians lives and prevent accidents but we have to uh be very careful when we're passing another car and pedestrians please uh if you see a car very close to the intersection do not step off the curve until the roadway is cleared across thank you very much