Miami Police crack down during month-long traffic enforcement
MIAMI - Drivers, jaywalkers and cyclists who ride bicycles at night without lights beware. Miami Police are cracking down and writing more citations than usual during a months-long blitz targeting areas of the city known for people breaking traffic laws.
"We don't want to be the bad guys by giving tickets for not having lights on your bike or jaywalking," Captain Freddie Cruz of the Miami Police Department said. "However, it's going to save a life. Oh well, we succeeded."
Officers began their enforcement blitz Wednesday. A grant covers the additional use of manpower through the end of May, police said. Members of the department's traffic division will target people violating laws like failure to yield, running red lights, and more.
In the last three months, seven pedestrians and three cyclists have been killed in crashes in the city, police said.
In February, a flatbed truck hit and killed a mom pushing a baby in a stroller on Biscayne Boulevard.
One month later, surveillance video caught a driver fleeing after hitting Tomas Brito, 40, on Southwest 8th Street in Little Havana. Brito later died.
"If you do something, if you do a crime, please help the victim," Dulce Del Pino, Brito's mom, said in March.
Several blocks west, shards of glass crowd curbs near Southwest 44th Avenue on Southwest 8th Street. It is one of many intersections known for drivers and pedestrians ignoring the rules of the road. Often, drivers involved in crashes tell police they did not know the law, police said.
So, officers have been educating people with pamphlets since January. Now, police plan to write more citations with one goal in mind.
"I wanna wake up tomorrow morning and know that we didn't have any fatalities in the City of Miami," Capt. Cruz said.
