‘It’s about high visibility’: Las Vegas police stress crosswalk safety after fatal hit-and-run

Although pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk, they don’t always anticipate the possibility that a driver won’t stop, Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. David Stoddard said Thursday.

“Just because you have the right of way as a pedestrian doesn’t mean it won’t hurt if you get hit,” Stoddard said during a crosswalk demonstration in the east Las Vegas Valley.

“It still applies to look both ways before you cross the street,” he said, while about 10 officers on motorcycles and in squad cars patrolled an area near the intersection of South Mojave and East Flamingo roads. “And when you’re inside the intersection, watch the vehicles that are approaching and clear every single lane. It’s a shared effort to make sure that we are making it to our destination at the end of the day.”

A 20-year veteran of the department’s traffic bureau, Stoddard spoke with reporters just steps from where a 25-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run crash on Dec. 5.

Ruben Ibarra had been crossing outside of the designated crosswalk just after 11:10 p.m. The driver, who was in a light-colored SUV, remains at large.

On Thursday morning, about five hours after another pedestrian was killed in a south valley hit-and-run crash, officers conducted “crosswalk enforcement” on Flamingo.

One officer was dressed as Santa and another as the Grinch as they assisted pedestrians, reminding them to activate the flashing lights and remain within the crosswalk.

During the three-hour event, Metro said, officers stopped 111 vehicles and issued 84 citations. The majority of those citations were issued to drivers who did not yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. A driver who fails to yield the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk could face a $300 fine.

Metro partnered with UNLV Traffic Safety Expert and Director of Ped Safe Vegas Erin Breen for the demonstration.

“It’s about high visibility,” Breen said. “Hopefully, it slows people down.”

Stoddard reiterated rules of sharing the road. He said that U-turns are always illegal in active school zones; that riders on scooters, bikes, or e-vehicles must walk their devices across the street instead of riding; and that, once a pedestrian has reached the median, vehicles on the side of the road they’ve cleared may proceed.

During the news conference, Stoddard pointed to people near a bus stop who jogged across the street less than 50 feet away from a marked crosswalk.

“You really don’t save any time, and you’re putting yourself in danger,” Stoddard said.

After the news conference, Lt. Cody Fulwiler said Metro had no further details about the driver in the Dec. 5 hit-and-run, and he urged community members to contact the police with any information.

“Our focus here is on the crosswalks, but it’s also a focus on how to properly drive and share the roadways with respect, because it doesn’t matter, in the end, who is truly at fault,” Fulwiler said. “A life was lost. We have to pay attention when we’re driving on the roadways to not only pedestrians, but to bicyclists, those on scooters, e-scooters, e-bikes.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com. Staff Reporter Bryan Horwath contributed to this report.