Clearwater Police Mark Drop in Pedestrian and Bicycle Fatalities

Clearwater is wrapping up a contract with the University of North Florida and FDOT targeting pedestrian and bicycle safety. Police say it has dramatically trimmed fatalities. We speak with the head of Clearwater's traffic enforcement unit, Sergeant Daniel Negersmith. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Clearwater Police have
spent the last several months and around twenty three thousand
dollars of state grant money to make city streets safer.
That program is coming to an end. May eighth. We
speak with Sergeant Daniel Nagersmith, who heads the city traffic
Enforcement team, to see how it's been going. Sergeant, welcome,
How are you today, sir? All right, doing well and

(00:21):
hope you are the same now. Your agency has been
conducting high visibility enforcement details since October. How's that paid for?
And what's involved? What have the officers been.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Doing so, how it's involved in, how it's paid for.
It comes to us as a contract from the University
of North Florida, their Police Training Area called IPTM, and
we have a contract with them for this period of
time from this one goes from nine to eleven, twenty
twenty five to May eighth, twenty twenty six. So during

(00:54):
that period of time they assign us specific areas targeted
areas that they used and and received data from where
it's either heavily heavily car crashes or a fatality has occurred.
For the officers to do this, they have to receive

(01:14):
a full day's training and UH on pedestrian safety as
well as bicycle safety and they have to go through
that training course in order to be part of this
grant are this it's actually a contract for the officers
who are and have been doing it for period every
other two years. They also have to receive four hours

(01:38):
of training in the same area of pedestrian and bicycle operation.
So primarily what it is is they the they've given
us different areas to work that they that they want
us to concentrate and that's how it operates and in
regards to our agency and and what what we've seen
with it all. You an example, in twenty twenty four

(02:01):
we had sixteen fatalities and that was between vehicles and
pedestrians and bicycles. Last year in twenty five we only
had eight. And I'm going to knock on some wood here,
but we've only had I believe too this year. So
it's definitely making a difference the enforcement and police officers

(02:24):
being out there makes a difference. It makes people aware
that you know, they need to be safe while operating
vehicles because there's nothing more scary when you talk to
somebody and they tell you they weren't paying attention.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Well, you've been set up at some of the city's
busiest streets, thinking about locations like Gulf de Bay and
Drew Street and Missouri and so it's been pretty extensive.
What are your plans as far as continuing with this
and hopefully sustaining this kind of record in positive trends

(02:59):
in terms of these types of accidents. What's your plan
as far as kind of trying to keep things moving
in a positive direction after this grand ends.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, what myself and my team have done here at
clear Water is we've actually started back. We went to
the recruits. So when recruits come in, we sell them
and we present them the opportunity to understand the importance
of traffic safety and why we stop vehicles. It's not

(03:29):
just to give somebody a citation. It's to educate the driver,
to get the driver to slow down, to pay attention
on the roadway. So we've gone back and we've found
that has been the route where we plant the seed,
and then what we do is we continue to let
it grow and we let it develop into patrol where
patrol has got this understanding that it's important that we

(03:52):
do this because what it does is it reduces vehicle crashes.
And that's really realistically what this is all about is
to reduce the vehicle crash and to preserve life. So
that's what we've done to make it continue on. And
it's taken us a couple of years to achieve this,
but it's actually working very very well. And for example,

(04:14):
I believe and I'm rounding the numbers. In twenty twenty
four we had thirty seven thousand traffic stops. Last year
we're at forty one thousand traffic stops plus. So I mean,
you can see that we're not decreasing. We're increasing the
visibility out there, which is very important for the agency
as well as the city of clear Water.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
And obviously you want drivers and bicyclists and pedestrians to
obviously continue to behave more safely there. So what are
some reminders for all of those groups as they try
to navigate their way around the streets.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
It's funny you say that, because today I was driving
and I was out by my home and bicyclists was
operating and I knew what that bicyclist was going to do.
This individual had it had a hoodie on and riding
that bicycle and kept on riding a bicycle, never stopped
at the intersection and just continued to cross. Almost got

(05:10):
struck by another vehicle. So it would have been struck
by mind and another one if I wasn't paying attention.
So what's what we have to do is we have
to focus and we have to show people. When I
was growing up as a kid, the first thing my
parents told me is you look both ways before crossing
the street. Some of the biggest issues that we see
with people is that they don't walk. They just walk

(05:31):
or they just walk out in front of a vehicle
and they get hit. The same thing with bicycles, and
the same thing we're seeing with the e bike train
train as well. So it's really it's gonna it comes
on two parts. It requires the driver of the vehicle
to be safe that it also makes the pedestrian as
well as the bicyclists they need to be more vigilant
as far as paying attention to their surroundings and not

(05:54):
just walking out into the middle of the street. You know,
it's it's uh, that's how we've gone about doing it,
and that's how it has to be done for the future.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Now and before we go. Just you touched on one
topic there, and I'm sure that it's a trend you're
having to deal with and seeing a lot of more of,
and that is the proliferation of e bikes on streets
and sidewalks and how that's affecting the way you do
your job.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well. E bikes are, they're their own have to it's
a very very difficult area for us to battle and
enforce because what they're what you're doing is you're crossing
between a bicycle and a potential scooter or electric motorcycle.
So we have we have different rules that we can
apply to different things, but there's no specific rule or

(06:41):
laws yet established for e bikes, so it's very it's
one of those areas. The other thing is that if
you've ever watched people on the e bikes, they feel
they're invincible and they can they just they will travel
right across a main road without stopping, and they don't look.
So that's half the problem. And when they don't look
and they're going as fast as they're going, the potential

(07:03):
for injury increases. So there's a lot going on with
the e bike aspect of it, and as far as
enforcement goes, we try to give a lot of education
in that world because they some of these people just
don't know. Parents will just buy these, buy these e bikes,
for these for their children and say here go have
a good time. But there's rules that need to be followed.

(07:24):
That is more important when you're operating a bicycle or
as a pedestrian because they're so much faster and the
potential for injury is a lot greater.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
A trend to be watching for. And congratulations and best
of continued success in making streets safer in clear Water.
Sergeant Daniel Nagersmith. He heads the city's traffic enforcement team,
and we've been talking about the high visibility enforcement initiative
that's been going on there. Sergeant, thank you very much

(07:56):
for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Thank you, sir,