MACON, Ga. — On Sunday night, a Bibb County Sheriff's Office deputy struck a 69-year-old man with his vehicle, according to a press release.
ORIGINAL STORY: Man hit by Bibb County deputy on Gray Highway
Come Monday, the sheriff's office declined to comment on the cause of the crash, saying it was still under investigation. The man's condition was listed as stable.
However, Captain Brad Wolfe say this kind of wreck is not uncommon.
He estimates "about 100" pedestrians are struck every year in Bibb County.
County statistics analyzed in depth in this report show the exact results from 2016 to 2018 were slightly higher than that.
A day after that Sunday night collision, the danger was on Diane Adams' mind as she walked from the bus stop near Gray Highway to the grocery store. It's a route that takes her across the road.
"I think we need a crosswalk," she said. "We don't have a choice when we're walking except to cross the street."
She was worried about being hit by a car.
Scott Staggs, who frequently drives Gray Highway, was worried about hitting someone, especially "in the morning, at 6 a.m. when I'm coming in and it's dark and you look up and someone's fixing to hit your rearview mirror."
The Macon-Bibb Pedestrian Safety Review Board said a big step in the right direction would be for pedestrians to use the crosswalks that already exist.
But Adams said she'd rather take her chances.
When WMAZ asked her why she decided to cross the highway instead of using a crosswalk about 50 yards uphill from her, she said it was too inconvenient.
"It'd be out of the way," she said.
Wolfe says -- technically -- crossing roads outside of the crosswalk isn't always against the law and even when it is, many people will do it anyway.
So he says drivers need to prepare with that in mind.
"They should be expecting a pedestrian to come out, if you're in an area with...parallel parked cars on the side of the road, expect a pedestrian to come out between those vehicles you don't see, expect those pedestrians to cross that road not in a crosswalk," he said.
He also urged drivers to preemptively slow down in areas with lots of pedestrians and asked those crossing roads on foot to wear high-visibility clothing.
Gregory Brown, the Pedestrian Review Board Chairman, echoed those sentiments and also asked pedestrians to "be alert (and) always make eye contact with the driver" before crossing in front of their car.
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