RICHMOND, Va. — Just in time for the start of fall classes, the Richmond Ambulance Authority is launching “Crossing Alert,” a campaign to combat distracted walking.
Once every three to four days, someone in Richmond, Va., is hit by a car while crossing the street, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, suffering an injury serious enough to warrant an ambulance transport.
“There is a definite inability...of people to know how to safely cross the street,” said Rob Lawrence, chief operating officer of the Richmond Ambulance Authority.
Although some pedestrians are more focused on their cell phones than looking both ways before crossing the street, some of the blame also goes to motorists, Lawrence said.
The agency is also taking “pedestrian countermeasures,” he said.
For example, the ambulances now use special sirens that part traffic quickly.
“We have a bass siren that’s called a growler. It emits a bass tone so that way you can feel it as well as hear it,” Lawrence said.
“What we’ve found is...that if you come up behind a car, for example, that has its stereo on, or someone with headphones on crossing the street, the normal siren they may well ignore. But when you put the growler on, the bass tone makes them look up and see what’s coming. We don’t use them all the time, only when we need to,” he said.