Hudson County drivers, pedestrians urged to pay attention on the roads under program

Hudson County Prosecutor Ester Suarez started the program "Slow Down, Save Lives" eight months ago after a series of pedestrian deaths in the county.
Since April, Suarez says that 13,000 summonses have been written by local police for unsafe driving on the Kennedy Boulevard corridor, one of the busiest areas in the county. The tickets were mostly written for speeding, but some were also written for jaywalking violations.
"We need drivers to drive when they are focused, only paying attention to the road, not their cellphones, not their radios, not their coffee," Suarez says. "And we need pedestrians to be very cautious."
The program is very similar to one started by advocate Paul Bellar-Boyer. Bellar-Boyer says that he started the program "Safer Streets JC" after his neighbor was struck and killed on a Jersey City street.
"We were surprised by all the things that were not being done to make the streets safer," he says.
Bellar-Boyer says that he would like to see improved engineering, law enforcement and education when it comes to pedestrian safety.
Prosecutor Suarez says that she wants to give her program a full year before assessing how effective its been.