Letters to the Editor

+ Crossing situation is an accident waiting to happen
Dear Editor:
The dangerous situation in the area of Stickney Point Road and Midnight Pass Road has prompted me to write this letter with the hope some good will come of it.

Florida law says, and rightfully so, autos need to stop in order to let pedestrians cross the street. This is fine, except people who want to cross should not carry this right to the extreme and step out to cross with no indication to the people driving they intend to do so and with what appears in many instances to be complete disregard of the cars.

There are a few busy bars in the area, particularly at night in season, and people crossing Midnight Pass seem to pay little to no attention to the auto traffic — they just step out not looking either way and hope, I guess, the cars will stop.

This situation is an accident waiting to happen. Drivers need some warning (that) people intend to cross instead of suddenly seeing people right in front of them in their headlights.

Something needs to be done to ease this bad situation, which seems to get worse each season when it is the most dangerous.

One thought might be to have crosswalks with flashing yellow lights that could be activated by the push of a button when you want to cross — this would help alert drivers. I am sure there are other ways, and I sincerely hope this letter will start some action to help correct this danger.
John Schuchardt
Siesta Key