PINELLAS PARK, Fla — People in Pinellas Park say they are risking their lives when they step out into the lighted crosswalk near Wagon Wheel Flea Market. They say drivers don’t see the flashing crosswalk lights and blow right past them.
Five days a week Robert Meier works across the street from busy Park Boulevard at Budget Auto and Boat sales.
"There’s a crosswalk and they don’t care, they just buzz right through it,” said Meier.
He says on the weekends, attempting to cross the six-lane highway is even worse.
"I was almost hit out there two to three times, my mechanic has been almost hit. About four or five months ago there was an individual killed out there and he’s not the first one,” he said.
We dug through crash data that shows there have been 31 crashes within a half mile of that spot this year alone. Two people have died.
We decided to test it out ourselves. We crossed multiple times and even after we pressed the button and walked right up to the crosswalk, multiple people drove through the crosswalk. It’s even worse for Meier, who’s in an electric scooter.
"It’s bad enough if you’ve got feet trying to get across that road when you can only do two miles per hour and you can’t get out of the way of these cars,” he said.
Meier believes having law enforcement planted nearby would help.
"What they need is a cop out here on the weekend, on a Saturday or Sunday and they would probably issue a dozen tickets at least," he said.
After ABC Action News reached out, both FHP and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office told us they will address the concerns with their traffic and enforcement units.
FHP says it’s well aware of the crashes on that road and passed along the concerns to FDOT to address engineering concerns.
