I just read this on FB. I totally believe it. I have seen marked police cars sitting near crosswalks.
My argument is they must be "in" the crosswalk and not just approaching it. Both drivers might not see someone approaching while one driver might.



I had an interesting experience in Southern Shores this morning. I was driving south on Route 12 when I saw a man at one the the pedestrian walk signs. I quickly slowed down to wait for him to walk across Route 12. But I was hit in the rear by the person behind me.
As I pulled over to the side of Route 12, I got out of the car and the man I saw at the pedestrian walk came toward me. He asked me if I was ok, then asked me for my driver's license & car registration. I gave him a dirty look wondering why a stranger would want my license/registration. So he told me he was a police officer. Then 2 squad cars shows up immediately to talk with the other driver and myself.
The Southern Shores police setup a "sting", where they were looking for people who didn't stop at the pedestrian walk when pedestrians try to cross Route 12. They had police cars waiting to see if cars stopped for their undercover officer trying to cross Route 12 in a crosswalk. While I don't think it was their intent for me to get rear ended, their sting had results that were worse than if a driver didn't stop for a pedestrian.
My car now has $3000+ damage and the other driver, while at fault, also had major damage. Does anyone else think the Southern Shores police setup this accident scenario ? Does anyone have an idea how the police could have achieve their objectives in a more productive manner ?

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Tim, that sucks. They may want to re-think how they do this. The SS police certainly doesn't want to be causing accidents.

I agree with you about the peds, they should be more deliberate about looking like they really want to cross the road. I've seen peds way off the road, sometimes talking amongst themselves and not looking like they are about to cross. When I decide to stop to let someone across I look in my mirror and if someone is closing fast I keep tapping my brakes to flash the brake lights.

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My car now has $3000+ damage and the other driver, while at fault, also had major damage. Does anyone else think the Southern Shores police setup this accident scenario ? Does anyone have an idea how the police could have achieve their objectives in a more productive manner ?

Next time, hold your ground and fight any tickets in court. The law clearly uses the word "within" in reference to where a pedestrian must be located in reference to a crosswalk. That is not... standing beside, appearing to want to cross, twiddling their thumbs on the side of the road, etc. If they are not within and you are not going to strike them... carry on. Obviously exceptions present themselves like children on bikes/scooters, playing with toys, etc. near the road and you're not sure what they will do, but edge cases aside... don't be "that guy" and stop in the road for no reason. That's my $0.02. Click to follow link...

If the cops setup a sting and placed someone within the crosswalk and you stopped as legally required and you were rear ended then that's an issue for the guy behind you. It would have happened even if it wasn't a cop. If you stopped for someone not standing WITHIN the crosswalk then that's on you, IMO.

I do think the sting operation is BS though, but not sure what you can really say about it. Either you or the driver behind you was in the wrong. Someone made a mistake in that scenario. Read the law, abide by it, and go from there.

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And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the person who made that Facebook post is one of those who will stop traffic like that for no reason. They probably also stop traffic so they can wave someone on from a side street, etc. They are probably genuinely a nice person, but niceness causes problems when it disrupts the basic rules of the road that everyone else around you may be expecting.

Years ago my dad and I were in his truck on the bypass. He was towing the boat. We were stopped. Traffic started to move and he waved a woman through who was in the turning lane. She was so timid and took her sweet time. By the time she got up the nerve to commit, the right lane was cruising at almost the speed limit. She almost got creamed. That was an important lesson for me (and I guess my pops, too). Don't be "nice" because the other person may not react at the speed required to successfully pull it off.

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A few years ago there was federal money associated with pedestrian safety. Basically, providing proper crosswalk markings and sings along with at least one enforcement action would earn some grant money.

I don't know if that is still a thing,

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