Maybe you didn’t notice the man in the big straw hat, standing near State Road A1A and Eau Gallie Blvd. last week – but he noticed you, and watched carefully as cars drove by.
Not wearing a seatbelt? Failing to observe a traffic signal? If so, he placed a quick call to officers with the Melbourne Police Department who were waiting just down the road – and a traffic stop was made.
The straw-hat man – also a Melbourne police officer – was taking part in Operation Beachside Blitz, a two-day crackdown focused on traffic infractions that are often a factor in crashes and traffic homicides. After receiving a “significant” amount of traffic complaints from beachside drivers, Melbourne Police Commander Marc Claycomb said his goal is to reduce the number of violations and crashes in the area, and enhance overall safety.
“By conducting focused enforcement, we bring local attention to the common violations, most of which are contributing factors to crashes,” Claycomb said. “Through education, awareness and enforcement, we work to reduce the number of crashes, and resulting injuries and fatalities.”
The blitz took place Feb. 26-27 in an area referred to as Melbourne Beachside, because it is part of the city of Melbourne, but located on the barrier island, with a post office address of Indialantic.
During the blitz, officers not only focused on motor vehicle violations like speeding, disobeying traffic-control devices and failure to wear a seatbelt, but also had their eyes on bikes and pedestrians.
Kelley Dunn has lived in Indialantic since 1961 and said the traffic issues on the beachside are “horrific,” with people routinely running stop signs and cutting through the residential neighborhoods to avoid AIA and get where they are going faster.
“I live on a four-way stop intersection and this behavior happens daily,” Dunn said. “Most of the people moving into this community have families with children, and I am concerned for everyone’s safety.”
Even though the event was announced in advance and shared continuously across social media for four weeks prior, it appears many people didn’t get the memo – or chose to ignore it. Over the course of the two-day blitz, officers stopped 141 drivers, issued 155 citations, gave out 19 warnings, and made one arrest.
Claycomb said the department is transparent and open about its intent because the whole point of the exercise is to change an undesirable behavior, in this case traffic violations.
“By telling drivers we are coming, we are letting them know violations are happening, we are aware and we are paying attention,” Claycomb said. “With this in mind, a portion of the driving population that has been made aware, and is driving in that highlighted area, will automatically pay more attention and adjust their driving accordingly.”
The result, he said, is that they have successfully adjusted that portion of the driving population without conducting the first traffic stop.
As for those who have been warned but travel the area and commit violations anyway, Claycomb said he believes this group comprises distracted drivers, drivers who may have not have received the information or forgotten, drivers who don’t think they drive poorly – and then, of course, the drivers who don’t care.
“We find a great many of the issues we see with poor driving are due to selfish drivers,” Claycomb said. “They are only concerned with what they are doing and where they are going.”
Joe Pinnell of Indian Harbour Beach said he normally doesn’t endorse speed control activity like this by police, if they are issuing tickets other than warning tickets, because he views them as speed traps. But said he was in support of this one.
“Given the new crosswalks on A1A, I think it can be a good thing. At the current speed limit of 45, and without flashing caution lights, the crosswalks present a greater hazard than what we had before,” Pinnell said. “If drivers, cyclists and pedestrians were more responsible, this wouldn’t be such an issue, but that is wishful thinking.”