With fireworks in the neighborhood, watch for kids in the street | Street Scene
Independence Day, July 4, 1776, the date our Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed by the Continental Congress. Citizens of America have rightly looked upon July 4th as significant in the birth of a new self-governing nation.
In 1941 the U.S. Congress declared the date to be a national holiday. Celebrations include parades, picnics, music and fireworks.
Tom Brown Park: Live music, fireworks and more this Fourth of July at Tallahassee's Celebrate America event
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According to a June 30, 2021 article written by Eduardo Mendina of the New York Times, 18 people died in 2020 and as reported by the Consumer Product Safety Commission about 15,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to fireworks.
Children have been blinded, lost digits and their lives. These are significant numbers which I am hopeful will bring to the forefront the necessity of reasonable care when celebrating with fireworks.
Beginning around dusk, and lasting well into Monday night we can expect children and adults to take to the streets with fireworks. We understand the potential for injury and death when handling fireworks. What I am asking is twofold:
Those handling fireworks should maintain situational awareness and keep fireworks with a report away from children and all fireworks away from traffic.
If you are driving on neighborhood streets, be on alert for anyone running into the street. Driving slower than the posted speed limit is a good line of offense for reducing a vehicle's stopping distance when an excited child runs into the street directly in front of you.
Height sensors for railroad bridge?
Q. Larry would like to suggest the railroad company responsible for maintaining the railroad bridge over Apalachee Parkway install electronic vehicle over-height sensors to warn truck drivers their rigs won’t fit under it. The thing gets hit and damaged much too often, causing an extended time we must waste while navigating construction barriers squeezing two lanes to one.
A. Good suggestion, Larry. I believe the railway tracks including all railroad crossings, bridges and overpasses in the southeast belong to CSX Corporation, the successor of Atlantic Coast Line RR. CSX has an office in Tallahassee and a headquarters in Jacksonville. We know people in both places read Street Scene so maybe CSX will take your advice to do something to stop fouling up our morning commutes.
A fascinating tidbit about the railroad throughout America I learned during my investigation of a forensics case. When we drive, ride or walk onto a railroad crossing we are on private property. Property belonging to the railroad company operating at that particular street crossing. I don’t believe there is a single at-grade RR crossing anywhere in the U.S. where the railroad right-of-way doesn’t slice through the local street right-of-way.
Walk on the left side
Q. Peter, learning Florida pedestrian law as a former jogger, now walking around his sidewalk-less neighborhood is surprised to see the majority of people walking on the right side of the road going with traffic. Riding a bicycle, a vehicle, on the right side with traffic is OK but on foot it’s different.
When people walk with the (flow of) traffic, Peter (in compliance with Florida law) must navigate further into the road to get around them, some with multiple dogs in tow. Peter writes to Street Scene asking, for the sake of pedestrian safety, if I could gently remind people of the law to get everyone moving in the same direction. In doing so everyone will be together with one less thing in the world to disagree on.
A. Florida Statutes 316.130(4) reads in part, where sidewalks are not provided, any person walking along and upon a highway shall, when practicable, walk only on the shoulder on the left side of the roadway in relation to the pedestrian’s direction of travel, facing traffic.
The key here is facing traffic. The ‘when practicable’ part of this law gives us the opportunity to walk upon the road if obstructions or obstacles prevent us from walking on the shoulder. But anytime we find ourselves on a road designed for traffic we are extremely vulnerable.
Access at Amazon Center
Q. Ken is asking about the 2 lane access off Thornton Road into the under construction Amazon distribution center.
A. I’m sure this is to accommodate access for work crews, construction supplies and equipment. Future use may be nonexistent or limited.
Caution in the storage lane
Q. Recently I wrote how we can snug up while waiting in a line of traffic in an effort to use every bit of a vehicle storage so the late arrivals won’t have to drive over the curb and grass median to access the too-short turn storage lane. In his response, John shares his unsettling experience when the car ahead of him with two men in it didn’t move when the traffic light went to green.
After being patient for about 10-15 seconds, John honked the horn, when he did the right front passenger appeared be exiting the vehicle when at that moment the driver drove away. John spoke to a law enforcement friend who advised to stay back far enough to be able to see the rear tires of the car ahead which will provide enough room to turn away from the potential trouble and not be involved in a potential carjacking or other crime.
A. It’s a sad time when we must first consider if we might be involved in a crime instead of thinking how we can extend a measure of courtesy to others.
Traffic signal outages
Q. Karen asks why the Tallahassee police department doesn’t send an officer out to direct traffic when the traffic signals go out? Rush hour provides very large traffic volumes and nobody is treating this situation as a four-way stop. Screeching tires and honking horns were so frequent Karen was afraid there would be a wreck.
A. Florida statutes gives us clear guidance in this case to treat an intersection with no workable traffic signals (or other traffic control) as a 4-way stop. A police officer in the middle of an intersection is in jeopardy of being injured by the very drivers you bring to our attention, Karen, not to mention there are more intersections than police officers. During severe summer storms experienced in the longitude and latitude Tallahassee is situated, the potential for unregulated intersections outnumbers available police.
The opportunity for a signalized intersection to go completely dark during a storm is slim to none as there are fail safe backup devices which will flash the main street signal yellow and the side street red. It isn’t necessary to educate Street Scene readers of the 4-way stop requirement but we can remind everyone to watch out for scofflaws driving cars.
In the case a work crew has shut down the intersection, it is their responsibility to bring in police or public service personnel to manage traffic before turning off traffic lights, which is indeed the common practice.
Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to crashsites@embarqmail.com.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Children at play: Slow down for fireworks in the neighborhood
