FHP, LCSO conduct Operation P.E.D.S.
On Thursday, May 28, the Florida Highway Patrol, along with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, completed the second quarterly wave of Operation P.E.D.S. (Pedestrian Education and Developing Safety) on State Road 78 in the vicinity of U.S. 41 and Business 41, North Fort Myers. The detail began at 1 p.m. and concluded at 4:30 p.m. Troopers looked for pedestrian, bicycle and motorist violations that occur at or near intersections.
The purpose of this detail was to decrease the amount of injuries and deaths through a series of highly concentrated education and enforcement details in areas prone to pedestrian and bicyclist involved crashes.
Warnings were issued for numerous violations to include: vehicle obstructing crosswalk, vehicle failing to stop at the stop bar, pedestrian violation of right of way mid-block, violation of pedestrian control signal.
Traffic safety information was provided to 90 pedestrians along with child vest reflectors, key chain lights to pedestrians in need. Safety information was given to 66 bicyclists along with bicycle head / tail lights, bells and reflectors to those in need. Two citizen contacts were made with motorist for crosswalk violations. In total, there were 158 citizen contacts.