Click It or Ticket in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Police officers will be enforcing a “Click It or Ticket” policy from today through June 12.

The enforcement began today with a morning traffic stop on West Carson Street, near Station Square. Officers gave tickets to motorists not wearing seatbelts, and handed seatbelt information packets to everyone driving through.

Pittsburgh Police Officer Glen Aldridge says officers will be enforcing the “Click It or Ticket” policy all day and night, in all areas of the city, through Sunday, June 12.

Aldridge, a collision investigator, says he’s seen situations where seatbelts made the difference between life and death.

“Recently, I investigated a collision out in East Liberty where a car was struck. It was an SUV, and it rolled over, and two occupants were belted, and they actually walked away from the collision with no injuries whatsoever,” says Aldridge. “A few years ago, I investigated a collision of a similar nature. No-one in the vehicle was buckled. The car rolled over, one revolution, and a lady’s neck was broken. She was killed as a result.”

The Pittsburgh Policeman says he’d like to see driving without a seatbelt become a primary offense, so officers could pull over unbuckled drivers. Currently, it’s a secondary offense, meaning the driver must be pulled over for another reason before a ticket can be issued.

PennDOT Safety Press Officer Steve Cowan says last year, 524 people died in accidents without wearing seatbelts in Pennsylvania. Twenty-four of those deaths took place in Allegheny County.

Envelopes of Life Distributed

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak is trying to keep seniors a bit safer in an emergency. She has been visiting senior centers and high rises for the last few weeks handing out “Envelopes of Life.” In the envelope is a form that includes lines for the senior’s name, age, medical conditions, medications, doctors and more. “In those moments when you may be in an emergency, every single second counts and when a medic or other first responder is searching around in your purse or in the vicinity for any medications that might be causing a problem, that is vital time that is lost,” says Rudiak.

The envelope comes with a sticker to go on your door to alert emergency crews to look for the envelope and a magnet to use to hang the envelope on the refrigerator. City emergency response crews are trained to look for the data and some suburban crews take part in the same training. Rudiak suggests the envelopes are not just for seniors. She has one on her fridge and thinks anyone taking medication or with a medical condition, should have one as well.

You can get an envelope by contacting Rudiak’s office (412-255-2131) or the Emergency Medical Services Headquarters (412-622-6930.) You can also download one of the forms and make your own envelope.

Rudiak will be handing out envelopes and talking about the program at the Carrick Regency at 4pm today and at Gualtieri Manor in Beechview at 2pm Thursday the 10th.

PA Rep: Teens Need More Drive Time

State Rep. Kathy Watson of Bucks County says the bill she introduced this week would help to save the lives of young drivers. Her bill carries three main changes to the state’s driving laws. The first would extend the number of behind-the-wheel hours a permit holder needs before moving on to a driver’s licenses, from the current 50 hours to 65 hours. Watson says ten of the additional hours would have to be logged at night and the other five during “inclement weather.” “We have found in reviewing crashes for this age group, these are factors that occur, that often young people are not prepared to handle,” says Watson. She says she hopes parents will abide by the rules and not just sign off on the specialized hours. “If your child is really good at sports you get them out there to practice soccer or baseball, or if you’ve got the concert pianist in the family, or whatever it is, you work with them because you get better with practice,” says Watson, “this is the same thing and this has really deadly consequences if they don’t get that experience.”

The bill would also force anyone from birth to age 18 to wear a seatbelt while seated anywhere in the car and it would make that law a primary offense, which means a police officer could pull over a car based solely on that violation. Watson says more than 50-percent of all automobile accident fatalities among 16 to 18 year olds can be traced back to not wearing seatbelts.

Finally, the bill calls for the number of teens that can be in the car with a young driver to be limited to just one. “They can not text or they can put the cell phone away but they can’t tune out the others who are in the car with them talking, laughing, asking questions,” says Watson, “that is very difficult for a new driver to deal with and process all that is going on on the road around them.” Exceptions would be made for family members.

Watson says she will work hard to make sure the bill is not bogged down with amendments. She says while, issues such as texting while driving and the use of hand held cell phones are important, they should not be added to this bill. She says those items are better handled in stand-alone bills that impact all drivers, not just teens.

PA Revamps Megan’s Law Web

Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law website has been upgraded by the PA State Police to now include what they believe is a more user-friendly interface. The website list information about registered sex offenders living in Pennsylvania. In the past, individuals have been able to search for offenders by community name or zip code. The site now allows users to enter an address and then search for offenders within a given radius. “It also has a Sondex feature that takes the name entered by the user and provides a list of individuals with that name and similar sounding names,” says PA State Police Spokesperson Jack Lewis.

The site continues to offer visitors a chance to submit a tip and it list sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown. For each sex offender the site includes a picture, an address and the offense for which they were found guilty. Lewis says it also notes if they are considered to be “sexual offenders” or a “sexually violent predator.” It also lists if they are required to be registered for life or if they are only required to let the state know where they are for the next 10 years.

Lewis says State Police would like to add even more functionality. “We would like to be able to add an electronic community notification feature that would allow users to receive notifications about Megan’s Law offenders via email or text messages but in order for that to happen we would have to have some changes in the law by the state legislature,” says Lewis

Visitors to the website are forced to accept terms of use. “We certainly are concerned that people will misuse the site by locating a sex offender and then harassing them in some way,” says Lewis, “That would be a violation of the law.”

State police officials say the site gets about 7,000 hits a day.

Business Told to Draw Up G20 Plans

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County public safety officials are urging business and residents to build emergency contingency plans in the weeks leading up to the G20 summit. Leaders from the world's 20 most powerful economies and the European Union will come to Pittsburgh September 24th and 25th for two days of meetings. Along with the security demands that comes with 20 world leaders gathering in one place, the G20 events always attract throngs of protesters who have in the past forced the closure of entire city blocks. Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Michael Huss says the city is going to do everything it can to protect downtown residents and businesses as well as the G20 participants but everyone needs to understand that there will be some disruptions. Roads will have to be closed from time to time and extra security will have to be in place throughout the area. He says the contingency plans are not just about moving operations out of the golden triangle. He says managers need to think about getting employees to work and make plans for the possibility that they will not be able to get deliveries or make shipments. Huss says the city will not write the contingency plans for the businesses but they have offered up some help at the website Pittsburghcoalitionforsecurit.org. He says going through the process is as important as having a final plan in hand, because it gives managers a better understanding of the details and builds in more flexibility. That flexibility may be key to any plan. Huss says not all security plans will be known until just before the event and others will not be released until the last moment to ensure tighter security. Allegheny County Emergency Services Director Bob Full says all businesses should have a contingency plan in place. He says if the G20 is the impetus then all the better.

Gang Awareness Summit

Hundreds of law enforcement officials at the federal, state and local levels along with social service providers and community leaders are wrapping up a 3 day conference in Cranberry, Butler County later this afternoon on dealing with the increase in violent crime associated with gang activity in the region.
Tom Fitzgerald, U.S. Marshal for Western Pennsylvania, says gang activity tends to come in waves and right now it's on the increase. Fitzgerald says gangs are becoming more sophisticated and evolving "It's not the gangsta rapper you see on T-V." He says the gangs are of all types...white, African-American and Latino and they are spreading into the suburbs. Fitzgerald says law enforcement has to work more closely with community groups to deter young people from joining gangs. One such group is the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania. Mike Hepler is the President and C-E-O. He says they are "tired of young people getting swallowed up by the streets." Hepler says young people are being pulled in one direction by the streets and in the other direction by organizations like his. He says they don't win all of the battles but they do win most of them with the help of law enforcement.