Following the death of 10-year-old Abby Whitford at a Papillion crosswalk earlier this month, police are stepping up patrols on Washington Street in the downtown area and warn drivers that this will continue.
Police Chief Scott Lyons tells 6 News that his department has made 400 traffic stops in a matter of days. Most of those involve speeding along that stretch of road. According to Lyons, eight of those violations were crosswalk violations.
“If someone is in the crosswalk, you stop your vehicle. It’s that plain and simple,” Lyons told 6 News. Before the increased patrol, Papillion police made 190 traffic stops from January to July.
“A lot of times people are speeding, and breaking red lights just to get where they’re going,” he says.
The increased patrol and traffic stops are just one part of a larger safety push. “I think the one thing overall is that we believe there’s going to be enforcement opportunities that we try to establish,” said Lyons. The state is offering grants to local police departments to aide in this push state-wide. All these efforts inspired by a deadly year in Sarpy County, 17 deaths including Abby.
“My heart goes out to the family. We’ve been leaning on each other inside of the police department. Even the fire department is doing the same. We take this personal,” Lyons says.
It is unknown if the driver in the crash that killed Abby will face charges, but police tell 6 News that they are 75% of the way through their investigation.
(Photo: 6 News)