Readers, it is only a matter of time until we have a student lose their life because of jaywalking on campus.
We encourage you to push university officials and the City of Kingsville to place a pedestrian crosswalk across West Santa Gertrudis Avenue, between Manning Hall and the Music Building.
There are existing crosswalks, one from the John E. Conner Museum to Manning Hall and another at the intersection of West Santa Gertrudis Avenue and North Armstrong Street.
The problem with these is distance. There is an inevitable parking issue on campus, causing students to struggle to find a parking spot within a reasonable amount of time before their classes start.
This leads students trying to save time by cutting across the street towards oncoming traffic.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pedestrian deaths account for 17 percent of all traffic fatalities.
With the lack of crosswalks, any individual may assume that there will not be a person walking to cross the street.
This could potentially cause a deadly accident just because people are ignoring the situation.
Many students are crossing the street although there is not a pedestrian crosswalk in place and are jaywalking, which is a crime in the State of Texas.
The maximum penalty for jaywalking is a fine and if one resists the fine and ticket, they can spend up to six months in jail.
For the safety of the students, the university and the City of Kingsville can work together to improve the crosswalks.
This can reduce the number of jaywalking tickets as well as accidents that can be avoided.
One thing that can be improved are more and better working crosswalk lights and visible signs.
Adding an additional crosswalk will prevent students from jaywalking, thus ensuring their safety and reducing the chances of serious accidents.
It is imperative city and campus officials work together to solve this crosswalk problem as soon as possible.
With these changes we can prevent accidents on the roads and decrease the amount of jaywalking that occurs on a college campus.
Enforcing students to not jaywalk can guarantee the safety of our students.
