Cutting crashes on the Northwest side
Four Northwest side alderman, in conjunction with the Healthy Streets Campaign, are on a mission: to cut in half the number of vehicle crashes in the 10-sq. mile area between Fullerton, Austin, Montrose and Kedzie. You can see why, considering there are roughly 25 crashes a day in that area, and ten people were killed in 2005.
Healthy Streets launched a new safety campaign today that aims to reduce crashes by beefing up traffic enforcement, raising public awareness and making low-cost modifications to signals and street design in the target zone.
It's an ambitious effort that hinges on people recognizing the four main contributors to accidents: inattentiveness, speed, failure to obey traffic signals and not yielding to pedestrians, Healthy Streets Coordinator Randy Neufeld said.
"Most people know where the traffic problems in their area are," Neufeld said. Through aggressive marketing, "We're trying to get to the point where a kid is saying, 'Mommy, you're not supposed to talk on a cell phone while driving.'"
Amen to that.
