40 Cited for Unsafe, Distracted Driving

Drivers zoom by, while texting or talking on the phone and breeze through stop signs as they race to their next destination.

The dangers are real in communities large and small, and have been highlighted locally with last year’s death of Hailey Ratliff, a 12-year-old girl struck while biking from school on Novato Boulevard.

The year before, Tysyn Jones, a 33-year-old Novato resident, was also killed after being hit with an SUV as he was walking on South Novato Boulevard.

In addition, there have been 75 injury accidents involving a car and a pedestrian since 2010, according to the Novato Police Department.

These accidents, and others, helped Novato Police receive a $9,000 grant from the Department of Public Health earlier this year to educate drivers and pedestrians about being safe on the roads.

Last week, police put some of the funding to use by conducting a special operation, citing 40 people for running stop signs, speeding through intersections, not yielding to pedestrians and yapping on the phone while behind the wheel.

“We want people to be aware of pedestrians where they are driving,” said Novato Police Lieutenant Oliver Collins. “We try to remind people to slow down especially in areas where there are a lot of people, like schools.”

Officers have also gone into Novato and San Marin high schools to give presentations about pedestrian safety.

“It’s not always the drivers,” Collins said. “People are texting and walking, and you can run into problems.”

What do you think? What can be done to make the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists? Is increasing fines for cell phone usage in cars the answer?

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated the driver who struck Hailey Ratliff was speeding. The driver was cleared of any wrongdoing. Patch regrets the error.