coe-staff: Parking Lot Safety

[Russ Crummett]

COE Community Members,

I would like to share an email I received the other day and to remind staff and faculty to use extreme caution will driving in the parking lots and on campus.

Please be safe!

Russ Crummett
Complex Facilities Manager
Office of the Dean
College of Education




Dear Russ,
Today, around noon, as I was leaving HEDCO to get some lunch, I walked along the walkway in front of the building and began to cross the entryway of lot 17, in the crosswalk, when a person pulled out of the underground parking lot and blew right past me, ignoring the stop sign and never even glancing in my direction. I had already stepped into the crosswalk and was right next to this man's car as he drove by. I did not recognize the person but could describe him and his car. I am assuming he works on campus because he came from the faculty/staff lot.

This is not the first time this has happened. There have been at least three other occasions in the past few months where people almost hit me as I was walking in the designated crosswalk near the entrance of the underground lot. People do not always stop at that stop sign and rarely do they look left and right to make sure no pedestrians are in the crosswalk. I am not going to name names but I know two of these individuals (both work in HEDCO) and was really surprised and upset by their carelessness.

Would you mind sending a message out to the coe-staff listserv reminding people it is ILLEGAL to run stop signs and it is crucial for everyone to look both ways before driving through a crosswalk  - especially in a parking lot where there are so many pedestrians and bicyclists. In one of the incidents that occurred over the summer, I was almost directly in front of the person's car when I noticed he wasn't paying attention, so I quickly stepped back out of his way, to avoid being hit. At no point did he acknowledge my presence. He just drove off, totally oblivious to the world around him. Fortunately, people tend to drive fairly slowly through the parking lot area so if anyone does get hit, they will probably not be seriously injured. But I still think it is important to remind people to pay attention and follow  protocol.




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