On 11 October 2017, the Traffic Police (TP) conducted an operation against jaywalkers. The operation was conducted at two locations in the central part of Singapore.
A total of 43 pedestrians were stopped for jaywalking.
The number of accidents where pedestrians were found to have jaywalked had increased by 21.1% – from 133 cases in the first six months in 2016 to 161 cases in the same period in 2017. Of these cases, about 30% involved elderly pedestrians.
The total number of accidents involving elderly pedestrians had also increased by 8.9%, from 124 cases in the first half of 2016 to 135 cases in same period this year. This is a concern as more than 50% of fatal accidents in the first half of this year involved elderly pedestrians jaywalking. The elderly tend to be more vulnerable than others due to their age and health. Hence, it is important for them not to jaywalk and to take precaution when using the roads.
Accidents involving jaywalking can be prevented. For their own safety, all pedestrians should always use designated pedestrian crossings when crossing roads and make themselves more visible to motorists by wearing bright or light-coloured clothing during hours of darkness. In addition, they should always keep a proper lookout for oncoming vehicles at all times especially when they are crossing the roads, at carparks, carpark entrances and their service roads.
As TP continues to educate and engage all road users to promote road safety, TP would also like to appeal to all motorists to take extra care to look out for pedestrians and the elderly on the roads. All road users have a part to play and together, with good RoadSense, we can make our roads safer for all.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
11 October 2017 @ 9:00 PM