This time of year, you know that the old man in the red suit with the white beard is watching you.
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been breaking pedestrian crosswalk laws. In fact, he saw dozens of people in Las Vegas do that yesterday.
Jolly old St. Nick was spotted walking across Nellis Boulevard between Bonanza Road and Stewart Avenue in a marked pedestrian crosswalk. But the motorists who did not stop while he was crossing received more than just a lump of coal – they got a ticket from Santa’s fellow police officers.
That’s because this Santa was really Officer Mike Lemley, who had “gone undercover” to see how many motorists would see him in a crosswalk and stop to let him pass. (If Lemley’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was doing the same thing in a turkey suit five weeks earlier.)
But according to Santa Claus Lemley, Las Vegas motorists have been good this year. Apparently, only 80 citations were issued for crosswalk-related violations this year – 20% of those for passing a stopped vehicle at a crosswalk and the rest for failure to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians. This total is much smaller than in prior years when this operation was conducted.
And thankfully, no vehicle actually struck Santa Claus. (That would have been a real blow to hundreds of millions of children around the world.)
There’s been a greater emphasis on pedestrian safety this year because of a series of auto-pedestrian accidents in the valley recently, many of them involving children. It can’t be overstated that drivers should exercise caution when they see pedestrians or approach pedestrian crosswalks or intersections in and around Las Vegas.
Happy Holidays!