St. Patrick’s Day is nearly here, and this will be another holiday with speeding, impaired drivers and impaired pedestrians putting Iowans at risk. On this St. Patrick’s Day, the Marshalltown Police Department will have an enforcement focus on pedestrian safety. Pedestrian safety is a shared responsibility between drivers and pedestrians alike. In Iowa in 2018 and 2019, there were 831 pedestrian crashes resulting in 48 fatalities and 139 serious injuries.

The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau and the Marshalltown Police Department are teaming up to educate the community and enforce laws regarding pedestrians. The enforcement on St. Patrick’s Day will be in a high pedestrian area.

Officers will focus on several violations that with combined enforcement and education efforts could drastically reduce pedestrian related crashes. The obvious violations are speed, drug/alcohol impairment, and Iowa’s texting laws.

Other violations are pedestrian laws to include pedestrians’ right-of-way. A pedestrians’ right-of-way occurs where traffic control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if needed to yield to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any crosswalk or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.

On the flipside is crossing at a location other than the crosswalk. The pedestrian must yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

The Marshalltown Police Department would like you to do your part in keeping our roads safe this St. Patrick’s Day by designating a sober driver, putting away your distractions while driving, watching for pedestrians and reporting anyone you suspect is driving while being under the influence of green beer.