A concentrated effort to improve pedestrian safety on Turlock’s streets resulted in 83 citations being issued Wednesday.

The citations were dispersed among both pedestrians and motorists alike and were issued in large part for jaywalking and not yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk, according to Turlock Police Sgt. Neil Cervenka.

Additionally, two citations for cell phone use and three citations for driving on a suspended license were handed out.

“Pedestrian safety is a two-way street,” Cervenka said. “The pedestrian must be aware of the motorists and obey all laws and signs pertaining to them just as much as the motorists do. It is always a severe trauma when a vehicle hits a pedestrian. If everyone obeyed the law, we would have much fewer pedestrian-involved collisions.” 

The operation was part of the Stanislaus Countywide Integrated Traffic Enforcement, which saw 11 motorcycle units from Turlock, Modesto, Ceres, Patterson and Riverbank assigned to the Turlock detail Wednesday.

The operation began in the morning at Turlock’s north end, where the team focused on jaywalkers and those pedestrians disobeying traffic signs.

Later in the day, the team moved to Twentieth Century Boulevard, where they focused on crosswalk enforcement.

Two teams of officers were located at the crosswalk on Geer Rd and the crosswalk on N. Golden State Blvd. Police officers wearing high visibility vests then crossed in the crosswalk at a normal walking pace. They did not step out until they were sure all oncoming traffic had ample opportunity to yield to them, Cervenka stated.

Turlock, as well as the rest of Stanislaus County, has seen a jump in the number of vehicle versus pedestrian collisions. It is the intent of the CITE team to bring awareness to both sides of this problem. The goal is that both motorists and pedestrians will be cognizant of the traffic laws and be mindful of each other. 

Additional CITE operations are planned for other areas.