April 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Goal: Make safety and security integral to every activity we do

Linking up to stop jaywalking

What started out as a seed of an idea to address an observed safety problem grew into a solution that may help save lives.

Randy Parks of Infrastructure Planning and a colleague were waiting for the Los Alamos Police to finish up their report on a fender bender along a stretch of Diamond Drive between Eniwetok and West Jemez roads in Technical Area 3, when they decided to pass the time counting jaywalkers (individuals crossing the street at locations other than crosswalks).

Delfin Romero, right, and Randy Salazar of KSL Services install a section of fencing to prevent people from jaywalking across busy Diamond Drive. Photo by Richard Robinson

"We noticed there were several jaywalkers, even with the police present," said Parks. "I brought it up as a safety share during one of our staff meetings, and it took off from there, with my directorate's Infrastructure and Site Services saying we really needed to do something about it. They then brought it to the attention of their management." 

Parks and Michael Bodelson, a member of the Laboratory's Worker Safety and Security Team, worked with their directorate to find a solution to the jaywalking issue.

One solution to the problem was to construct a chain-link fence 400 feet long by 3 feet tall along a stretch of Diamond Drive between Embudo and Eniwetok drives that will direct people to a safer approach to the small parking lot near the steam plant. It also will remove most of the motive for people to jaywalk along that stretch of Diamond Drive, employing one component (engineering) of what Bodelson and Parks call the Three E's, or three elements, for enhancing traffic safety—engineering, education, and enforcement. As far as enforcement, the Infrastructure and Site Services Directorate has asked the Los Alamos Police Department to give more attention to the jaywalker issue.

The fence will be an addition to other existing pedestrian safety features along that stretch of Diamond Drive, which include a pedestrian tunnel a short distance from the corner of Diamond Drive and West Jemez Road and several crosswalks at the traffic lights along Diamond Drive between West Jemez and Pajarito roads, said Parks.

"We really would have felt bad if we hadn't moved forward with this plan, and a month or two later someone gets injured or killed jaywalking in that area," said Parks.

"Our hope is when we talk about safety in the workplace, it is not just about at our desk or in our lab, but everywhere. We hope it's at home as well," said Parks and Bodelson.

For information on the Laboratory's Worker Safety Committee, go to http://int.lanl.gov/orgs/adsms/wsc/ online.

-Ed Vigil