2 Pedestrian Crashes Occur Day Apart; What's Pinellas County Doing?

PINELLAS PARK, FL — As the nation commemorates National Pedestrian Safety Month in October, Pinellas Park residents are mourning the death of one person and sending "get well" messages to another after they were struck while trying to cross city streets just a day apart.

According to Pinellas Park police, at 10:24 p.m. Tuesday, a silver Chevrolet driven by James Cramer was heading north on 49th Street North when he struck Donna Yarish who was crossing in the 9400 block of 49th Street North.

Cramer remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation.

Yarish was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Then on Wednesday at 4:33 p.m., a pedestrian was crossing U.S. 19, which has been designated one of the deadliest roadways in the country, when the pedestrian was struck by a pickup truck in the 11300 block of U.S. 19 North.

The pedestrian was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

According to Forward Pinellas, the county's land use and transportation planning organization, between population growth and an influx of tourists, Pinellas County is experiencing a surge in traffic deaths involving pedestrians and bicyclists. Last year, 107 people were killed on county roads with an average of two people killed or seriously injured every day.

To help reduce these statistics and ensure that drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists are safe on county roads, Forward Pinellas has adopted a Safe Streets Pinellas Action Plan committed to zero deaths and serious injuries on Pinellas County roads by 2045.

"Over the last year, Forward Pinellas studied why these crashes are happening," said Chelsea Favero, spokeswoman for Safet Streets Pinellas. "We’ve also held several demonstration projects to test ways we could make our roads safer, such as exploring new technology and educational outreach. Now we’ve created an action plan that will guide our steps as we work toward ensuring everyone is safe on our roadways in Pinellas County."

Additionally, the Pinellas Park Police Department as well as police in other Pinellas municipalities and the sheriff's office have been participating in statewide safety campaign to keep pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers safe as part of the Florida Department of Transportation's "Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow" safety initiative.

Funded through a contract with the University of North Florida in partnership with the Florida Department of Transportation, the sheriff's office and police departments' involvement in the "High Visibility Enforcement" efforts pay for additional law enforcement personnel to be posted at dangerous intersections to enforce traffic laws and educate the public on how to safely navigate roads by foot, bicycle and vehicle.

Beyond that, Forward Pinellas is working with the county and municipalities on implementing traffic safety improvements under the Safe Streets Pinellas Action Plan such as enhanced crosswalks with rapid flash beacons and additional pavement markings, widened bike paths separated from road traffic and techniques to slow down traffic including adding roundabouts and implementing Complete Streets Program projects that may include removing lanes from roads (aka road diets) and adding medians to allow safer left turns, bike paths and wider sidewalks.

In addition to receiving state funds for Complete Street projects, Forward Pinellas is hailing the Complete Streets Program for its ability to reduce traffic speeds. Speeding traffic has been identified as the biggest contributor to traffic fatalities on Pinellas roads, according to Forward Pinellas. Eighty-seven percent of the roadways on the county's High-Injury Network account for 67 percent of all crashes that involved a fatality or serious injury. They also have the highest levels of fatal and serious crashes for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The High-Injury Network accounts for about 40 percent of all killed or seriously injured (KSI) crashes, which occur on about 2.7 percent of the roadway network in Pinellas County. Most of the roadways on the HIN have a speed limit greater than 40 mph, and the majority are under FDOT jurisdiction (75 percent), as compared to Pinellas County (23 percent) and municipalities (3 percent).

Additionally, more than a third of the county's elementary, middle and high schools are located along the High-Injury Network, which also tend to have speed limits greater than 40 miles per hour.

When a vulnerable roadway user is involved in a collision with a person driving greater than 40 miles per hour, the chance of survival is very low, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Seventy-three percent of the HIN roads fall within or run through a Community of Concern, which compromises 32 percent of the county’s geographic area.

The national Urban Institute defines a Community of Concern as one that lacks access to affordable transportation options, and is populated by older adults, people of color, people experiencing poverty, people with disabilities and people with limited English proficiency.

Forward Pinellas is currently accepting applications from governments to participate in Complete Streets plans that include concept plans to construction projects. Up to $100,000 is available for the development of concept plans and up to $1.5 million is available for construction projects. Applications are due Oct. 6.

Two Complete Streets Program applications were submitted in 2022 and approved by the Forward Pinellas Board in March 2023 are $65,000 to the city of Largo for the Clearwater-Largo Road Multimodal Safety Improvements Project and $37,500 to the city of Pinellas Park for the 60th Street North Complete Street Concept Plan Project.

Complete Streets plans approved in 2021 included $65,000 to St. Pete Beach for its Downtown Redevelopment District Complete Streets Network Project and $35,000 to Pinellas County for its Whitney Road Complete Streets Planning Project.

Concept plans approved in 2020 included $100,000 to the city of Tarpon Springs for Disston Avenue improvements and, in 2019, Largo received $100,000 for a concept plan for 4th Avenue Northwest between the Pinellas Trail and Missouri Avenue; Pinellas Park received $100,000 for 78th Avenue between U.S. 19 and 60th Street; St. Pete Beach received $70,000 for the Boca Ciega and Gulf Winds Drive corridor

Construction plans approved in 2019 include a request from Dunedin for Skinner Boulevard improvements and a request from Largo for improvements to 1st Avenue Northeast from Missouri to 4th Street Northeast.