Tampa police launch pedestrian safety campaign

Well, new tonight, a deadly trend on the streets of Tampa, where the majority of fatal accidents involve people who are either walking or riding a bike. Yeah, Tampa police are actually launching a months-long campaign here targeting the city's most dangerous roads. Let's go to FOX 13's Kylie Jones, who's live near one of them for us tonight. Hi there, Kylie. So tell us where you are and what they're trying to do. Hey, guys. Yeah, well, West Kennedy Boulevard is one of the streets on that list. Might not come as a surprise to some people with how busy it is. Some encouraging numbers here, though, for you. The number of deadly crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, according to Tampa police, is down 54% this year in comparison to last year. And they do attribute that in part to initiatives like this. Now, the whole point of this campaign is to raise awareness about what police see out on the roads and educate people walking, biking, and driving. Now, police tell me the number of warnings they've given out this year is already up by more than 100 in comparison to last year. But the number of citations is down, which tells police their efforts are working. Corporal Keith Brown says this campaign really isn't about writing more tickets, though. The majority of crashes that I've investigated, I was a traffic homicide investigator for a couple of years. A lot of the crashes we see are preventable. And that's really what really hurts is that you go there and you're like, man, this could have been prevented. A lot of the crashes are happening 150 feet from a crosswalk. Now, here's a list of high traffic streets that the police department is focusing on. And a lot of these are areas where we've seen growth in the city skyrocket. That includes Hillsborough Avenue, Fowler Avenue, Kennedy Boulevard, again, North and South, Dale Mabry, and downtown Tampa. And there are more on that list. Again, the focus here is education and awareness. And this initiative will run statewide, guys, through May of next year. All right. Kylie Jones with us. Kylie, thanks very much.