Bella Vista resident Randy Hamm was left with a sore knee and a few cuts and bruises after trying to dodge what he thought was a wreck about to happen during a recent hike on the Back 40 trails.
The whole incident, he said, could have been avoided if everyone followed the traffic rules, which require trail users to yield to road users who are to keep going and not stop to let pedestrians and riders through.
Hamm came to a crosswalk on Trafalgar Road, just south of Grosvenor Road, he said, and waited for cars to pass. One stopped, and the car behind it got on the brakes late and started to skid. Hamm said he tried to dodge, unsure if the car was about to go off the road: He lost his footing and fell face-first into a ditch.
When he stood up, the only evidence of the incident was a set of skid marks.
Capt. Tim Cook of the Bella Vista Police Department said that, while pedestrians do have the right of way at a normal crosswalk, trail users have a stop sign at these crossings and are required to yield to road traffic.
"Crosswalk safety, to me, is a two-way responsibility," he said.
Drivers do need to be looking out for people in crosswalks and driving the speed limit to ensure they can see someone in time and stop quickly enough. But pedestrians and riders also need to be looking and listening, he said.
"You need to be responsible for your own safety," he said. "You can be right as rain -- but if you get hit it doesn't matter."
One factor, he said, is the speed and flow of traffic on streets like Trafalgar Road. There is plenty of relatively fast-moving traffic because of the speed limit. Drivers, he said, need to be aware there are crosswalks, and drive the speed limit.
The department, he said, intends to perform more speed enforcement, particularly near these crossings.
"I don't care who has the right of way," Hamm said. "I just want to live."
General News on 11/30/2016