Oakland County’s ‘Operation No Walking Zone’ Cuts Down on People Getting Hit by Cars in Pontiac
A targeted traffic push in Pontiac wrapped up with officers writing 116 tickets and 78 warnings. During the two-week period, not one person got hit by a car. The Oakland…
Stock Photo
A targeted traffic push in Pontiac wrapped up with officers writing 116 tickets and 78 warnings. During the two-week period, not one person got hit by a car. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office shared these results on September 26.
"Our traffic unit did a great job stepping up enforcement in areas with multiple pedestrian accidents," Sheriff Mike Bouchard said, according to FOX 2 Detroit. "Their focus on both pedestrian and driver behavior clearly made an impact."
The police officers who wrote the tickets caught drivers who sped or used their phones while driving. They issued warnings to those who crossed streets at risky spots between September 5 and 19.
Officers watched four key spots: where Huron meets Saginaw, Baldwin crosses Montcalm, Walton joins Perry, and Auburn intersects Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Cars had struck several people at these crossings in past months.
The push started after seven drivers struck people and fled the scene this year, killing or badly hurting them. Two deaths occurred near each other on Baldwin Avenue—one on July 3 and another on August 5.
"The goal of the enhanced enforcement was to educate pedestrians on the dangers of crossing a street in an unsafe area and to encourage them to use crosswalks when crossing streets and roadways," the sheriff's office stated, as reported by WXYZ.
Data shows cars struck 70 people walking in Pontiac from January 2023 through early September 2025. Seven died—five just this year. Another 19 suffered major injuries that changed their lives, as per Yahoo News.
City workers added safety features. A new three-way stop went up at Baldwin and Virginia in August. Mayor Tim Greimel made sure crews fixed broken streetlights on Baldwin to reduce nighttime risks.
For two straight weeks, no one called the sheriff's special crash team about serious accidents. This marked a sharp break from the usual pattern of cars striking people who walked Pontiac's streets.
