Public safety campaign hopes to reduce car accidents in Santa Cruz

A public education effort in Santa Cruz is trying to reduce the number of car accidents on the street.

City staff are calling it the Street Smarts campaign, and on Saturday the city held an event in Laurel Park themed Back-to-School Traffic Safety.

It featured 12 different booths that underscored safer road habits for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

The effort is based on a similar one in San Jose that targets unsafe driving speeds, distracted driving and not following rules of the road.

The city plans to put out posters all over town with messages like “If you see kids, slow down.”

They are hoping the repetition of these messages will change attitudes. Something one parent thinks is a good thing.

“When I’m driving, I’m pretty conscious because I’m also on my bike a lot, so I try to think about it,” said Joe Hedgecock, a Santa Cruz resident. “But I think there are a lot of folks that don’t bike much and they need to be conscientious about the fact that there are a lot of cyclists and little bikers who are learning how to ride out there, they need to be careful.”

Santa Cruz Police says the city has one of the highest accident rates in the states when it comes to car-to-car and car-pedestrian incidents. They are hoping the Street Smarts campaign will change that.