Troubling Trend in Ellensburg

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Story Published: May 28, 2009 at 5:23 PM PDT

By Audrey Asistio

ELLENSBURG -- KIMA identified another troubling trend in Ellensburg: cars hitting people and bikers on the street. There are certain hot spots you should be aware of.

Beautiful sunny days have people walking and biking in downtown Ellensburg. But police say with more people on the streets, there are more accidents happening. They say one of the biggest problems they see on the road is bikers not following the rules. Ellensburg Police Corporal Brian Jones explained, "Bicycles that are going through the stop signs, they can use the crosswalks." He points to a biker who just drove through a stop sign without stopping and said, "Like that guy should have stopped at the stop sign. The other guy did, and when they don't do that, there's a car going at the same time. It can cause a bike versus vehicle collision."

One accident prone hot spot is University Way. Like the name suggests, most victims are college students. Another trouble street is the intersection of 18th Avenue and Walnut Street. Since the beginning of the school year, eight people and seven bikers have been hit by cars. Luckily, no one was killed.

Cyclist Joe Salvidge told Action News, "Most people just don't care enough, because it feels like on a bike, you can get away with whatever you want."

Most people don't care, and that is why Ellensburg police started their motor patrol emphasis program. They are keeping a look out and are ticketing anyone not following the rules.

Captain Dan Hansberry said, "Both bicyclists and cars just need to be watchful for each other to help prevent the collisions."

When bikers break the laws on the road, they get fined $103 for most violations. Drivers are fined about $20 more than bikers.

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