LAKELAND, Fla. – The Metropolis of Lakeland has taken a big step in direction of making its roads, neighborhoods and faculty zones safer.
The Imaginative and prescient Zero Motion Plan, accredited unanimously by commissioners Monday morning, goals to get rid of deadly and critical harm crashes by 2040.
READ: Lake Bonny residents create petition calling for impartial investigation into flooding after Milton
“We now have a Imaginative and prescient Zero Committee that began in 2023 and, since then, we have checked out crash information during the last 5 years,” stated Site visitors Operations Supervisor Tess Schwartz.
By the numbers:
In 2024 alone, town skilled:
- 19 fatalities
- 84 critical accidents
- 4,801 complete crashes
As a part of the plan, metropolis commissioners will contemplate the approval of faculty zone security cameras that seize drivers touring 10 mph over the posted pace restrict. The expertise turned enforceable in and round college districts after Governor Ron DeSantis signed laws again in 2023.
“Once we seemed on the current speeds, there was lots of rushing, greater than 600 at one college location,” stated Schwartz. “We’re hoping that quantity will go down as individuals cease rushing at school zones.”
A car pace research carried out by Verra Mobility in Might 2024 calculated almost 3,000 college zone pace restrict violations per day inside the metropolis.
Dig deeper:
Moreover, commissioners will contemplate increasing red-light digital camera areas, which take an image of the car and its license plate.
“We checked out the place we’re having angle crashes, that are the kinds that usually occur when individuals run pink lights, so we checked out the place we had been having people who resulted in accidents, and so we really helpful new areas based mostly on that information,” stated Schwartz.
MORE: Lakeland man dies after crashing into fence, tree: Police
Three of these areas embrace:
- Memorial Boulevard at Brunell Parkway
- Florida Ave at George Jenkins Blvd
- MLK Jr Ave at George Jenkins Blvd
The pink gentle cameras and faculty pace zone cameras can be budgeted for the following fiscal yr.
Lastly, the plan features a city-wide pace restrict research to find out if the pace restrict in sure neighborhoods needs to be lowered down to twenty mph.
What’s subsequent:
Town is looking for extra grants, together with federal security grants, to implement these security tasks.
WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
