Both pedestrians, cars need to pay attention

At 10:30 a.m. I am the mother of a 4-month-old. I had my daughter in her stroller as I was heading east on Cedar at the corner of Division near the library. I looked north and south, no oncoming traffic. There were 3 cars stopped at Division going west. I made eye contact with the driver of the first car that was stopped at Cedar and Division going east. I proceeded into the crosswalk with my stroller and when I was a few feet into the crosswalk, the woman turned south onto Division.  I had to stop abruptly to prevent her from hitting my daughter in her stroller.

11:30 a.m. Three of us, including my 4-month-old in her stroller, were IN the crosswalk at Pine and First Avenue near Ivano’s. The stoplight was red and the pedestrian signal was green.  As we headed east across First Avenue a red Ford pick up with Kootenai county plates blasted through the stoplight and the crosswalk. Had we not looked north one more time we would have been yet another pedestrian tragedy in a crosswalk in our quaint walking town of Sandpoint.

The purpose of this letter is to remind all readers / drivers to please pay attention when pedestrians are in crosswalks, drive attentively, and obey traffic light signals. When the light is red, stop.

When there is a pedestrian in the crosswalk, stay stopped until they are through.

And as pedestrians we must also obey the rules, including being hyper-attentive when crossing anywhere

MORGAN TAJAN

Sandpoint