Police talk pedestrian safety at high schools

Enforcement will begin after educational period

Sixteen pedestrians have been struck and killed by vehicles so far this year.

The schools were selected because both are located near high-speed roads, Didone said. The area around Route 118 and Crystal Rock Drive, where Seneca Valley is located, is particularly bad, he said.

At Northwest, located near Great Seneca Highway, two students were injured in minor crashes within a week of each other this school year.

At 6:52 a.m. Oct. 29, a 15-year-old girl from Germantown was struck by a vehicle on her way to school while crossing Steeple Road near Hopkins Road, according to Lucille Baur, a police spokeswoman. The girl was not in a crosswalk, she said. The incident was near Ronald McNair Elementary School.

And at 2:20 p.m. Nov. 2, a then-13-year-old girl from Germantown was hit by a vehicle while crossing Great Seneca Highway near Clopper Road by an 81-year-old woman from Rockville, Baur said. The pedestrian signal changed while the girl was crossing the road, she said.

Both students have returned to school, said Kate Harrison, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Public Schools.

‘‘They don’t pay a lot of attention,” said Donna Poindexter, president of Northwest’s Booster Club, referring to drivers and student pedestrians. ‘‘...I know there’s a problem, as far as I’m concerned, but what the answer is, I don’t know.”

Unsafe pedestrian and driver behavior is not unique to students, said Officer Kent Smith, supervisor of county police’s Education Facilities Officer program for the 5th and 6th districts.

‘‘It’s been a general population problem, we just have a line in with the students through the EFO program,” which place officers in schools, he said.

About 400 pedestrians are struck by vehicles around the county every year, said Tom Pogue, spokesman for the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation.

Officers will begin the enforcement program at the schools by educating students about traffic laws and providing tips such as wearing light-colored clothing at night, Smith said. Pedestrians may be cited for failing to cross at a crosswalk, he said, and drivers for not yielding to pedestrians.

Northwest has a pedestrian safety program, he said.

Northwest Principal Sylvia Morrison could not be reached for comment.

Seneca Valley does not have a pedestrian safety program, but school officials periodically raise the issue with students, Principal Suzanne Maxey said.

‘‘If we keep it on the front burner of their brains, they’re pretty good about it,” Maxey said. ‘‘...I keep telling them, ‘You better not die, you’ll break my heart.’”