St. Pete's Most Fatal Intersections Focus Of Speeding Crackdowns

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — With fatal crashes on the increase this year, St. Petersburg Police have resurrected a monthly crackdown in hopes that drivers and pedestrians pay more attention to the rules of the road.

About 85 traffic tickets had been issued in the area of St. Petersburg's most dangerous intersection, 66th Street North and 38th Avenue North, Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., St. Pete Police Sgt. Michael Schade told Patch in an interview.

According to Schade, 16 traffic fatalities have occurred in the city so far this year, compared with 15 traffic fatalities at this point in 2021.

St. Pete police have brought back its once-a-month traffic enforcement day after a year's absence.

"The reason we started doing it again was that we saw a significant uptick in the traffic fatalities ever happening in the city," Schade said. "So we track the most dangerous intersections for crashes and areas that we know are speeding areas. We end up going to those locations once a month. I have about 15 officers out here in four different locations."

Schade said he expects the 15 officers assigned to Tuesday's traffic enforcement to have written between 225-250 tickets by the end of the day.

The purpose of the traffic enforcement day is to change people's behavior while driving.

"We're not wanting to punish people, we just want to slow them down so that we're not having these fatalities," he said.

At the 66th Street North and 38th Avenue North intersection, about 18 crashes have occurred so far this year with a range of no injuries to minor and serious injuries. Two of those crashes were fatalities, Schade said.

The city's year to date total of 16 crash fatalities has been a mixture of cars striking pedestrians, bicyclists and other vehicles. Schade believes some of the pedestrian fatalities could have been prevented if those on foot had stopped at the crosswalk while the orange signal hand was up.

"Several of our pedestrian fatalities have been the result of people crossing mid-block or they're crossing at night and they're wearing all dark clothing where there's not a lot of good street lighting available," Schade said.

The St. Pete police want to get the message out to pedestrians about why it's important to follow the rules of the road, cross at the crosswalk, and cross at the right time on the crosswalk.

"We have the signals that tell you when it's safe to cross and when it isn't," Schade said. "Follow those indicators because it's important to follow the rules of the road as much as it is for the vehicles to be following the rules of the road.

The traffic enforcement team started at 7 a.m. on Thursday. A Patch reporter who drove from the I-275 offramp onto 38th Avenue North to where 38th intersects with 66th Street North saw multiple people pulled over along 38th.

As a reminder, the speed limit on 38th Avenue North is 40 mph from the interstate off-ramp up to 66th Street North.