On Sunday, June 20, at 12:17 p.m., Saugerties Police responded to a reported motor vehicle crash on Market Street in the village of Saugerties.
An investigation by police established that 71-year-old Jeffrey Wayne Snyder walked across Market Street into the path of a 2021 Kia, whose driver abruptly stopped to avoid striking Snyder. As a result, a second vehicle, a 2015 Nissan traveling directly behind the Kia, rear-ended the Kia.
Snyder was issued a traffic summons as a pedestrian for failing to abide by the NYS pedestrian laws regarding crossing public roadways; specifically, crossing a street at a point other than a crosswalk.
I think drivers are on fully board with these crosswalks and the fact that the pedestrian has the right of way, but people are nearly clueless about walking in them and riding bikes in them too. Certainly, it has made the sport of Jay Walking much more dangerous! I do not see it in New Paltz some times, I see it every time I drive through, averaging two transits per day. Walkers and bikers behave with immense carelessness, but we drivers are on guard for their antics. The step onto, then off the painted zone. The standing still, looking around, in the painted zone. The riding of bikes off the sidewalks and onto the painted zone. No sweat. It’s having someone like our Mayor, twirling his umbrella, stroll across less than 100 yards from a crosswalk that upsets the equilibrium my mind has achieved…the Pedestrian Always Has the Right of Way, but the Red Cape does not always fool the bull.