And every month what we do is we join forces with the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission
and try to make it a safer place for you and everybody around you.
And this morning, Deputy Friendly is here and she is friendly.
I'll give her that.
Not snarling, snapping, nasty, no, she's very friendly.
Deputy Crystal Vanegas is here from the Racine County Sheriff's Department, right?
Yes.
Good morning.
A lot of people get confused being sheriff and police.
Sheriff's are elected police officers are, I mean, police chiefs are appointed.
Correct.
So that's the difference.
You're part of an organization that's elected in the office.
Correct.
Yes.
But what is the difference, though?
What do you do differently than the police department ever seen?
Well, the Sheriff's Office is in charge of the jail and we contract with other municipalities
throughout the county and we patrol west of the interstate mainly in all of our areas.
And then we do assist with the city, but we don't take their calls unless they need us.
Did you make a conscious decision?
I want to be in the Sheriff's Department, not the police department.
Yes, there's a lot of opportunities and directions you can go out the Sheriff's Office.
Lots of different places to be, activities for special teams, things like that.
Now, this is a question I didn't tell you I was going to ask you, but I got to know.
There are no more police cars are there.
There's only police SUVs now.
I know we don't live in Mayberry, but the Sheriff's Tale are always at a police car with
a little light on top.
I haven't seen a police car in years.
They're all gone.
I think we've pretty much all switched over to the SUV style or trucks.
We do have a couple trucks.
Yeah, even when I watch like live PD or whatever the show is now on patrol live, you never
see police cars anymore.
It's all police SUVs.
It's because there's more room to put stuff in the back is we do carry a lot of things
back there.
Yeah, I see these guys open the back hatch and they got this drawers and stuff and pulling
things at dogs in the back seat.
We do.
They got it.
We just had a Sheriff's Department.
We had a canine in here a few weeks ago.
Oh, good.
The manufacturer's last month when we did the Racine County Traffic Safety Commission,
we have the dog in it well-behaved, didn't get it made in bite, didn't do anything.
That's good.
We're staring at me waiting for a false move, but that was it.
Okay.
So we're here to talk about safety.
The Racine County Traffic Safety Commission and this month we're talking about pedestrians
and people say, what's a pedestrian comes to the word pad that meaning feet, meaning
people who walk around crossing streets.
And that would be just about everybody.
Let's talk about that now because everybody knows pedestrians have the right.
They still have the right of way because when a car meets a pedestrian, the pedestrian will
lose 100% of the time.
And you see people hitting, they fly in the air over the cars and everything.
It's very scary to watch.
It is.
And they don't always die, but they sometimes they really hurt after that happens.
Sometimes people hit them on purpose, but most of the time it's simply an accident.
Let's talk about that right now.
This constant law defines a pedestrian as anyone a foot or using a wheelchair manually
or mechanically powered or another low-powered mobility device specifically designed for use
by physically disabled individuals.
And I know sometimes it's frustrating when people move real slow across the street and
they look at you and they're not going to move any faster because you can't make me.
They're right.
I can't make them.
But with wheelchairs, you know, it's bad enough you're going to spend your life in a wheelchair.
Give them a little leeway.
If they're crossing the street and they're slow, just you wouldn't want to be in that wheelchair.
And it's not a good life to have.
Now here's the scary part though, children because children have no filters.
They just do what comes naturally, a bus drops them off that run across the street.
Absolutely.
And it's dangerous because they don't know.
They just, they're excited.
They're home from school and they run.
Even though those little stop signs are out on the buses where you have to stop, I
can't believe how many people just go past that and it gets dangerous.
It is very dangerous.
We do see that a lot.
And there's a huge fine sheet you're caught doing it, right?
There is.
Yeah.
It's a few hundred dollars.
No.
And I see it all the time.
What are you going to do?
I mean, I can't grab the mother neck and choke them, which I'd like to do sometime.
All right.
Pedestrians have the right of way we've talked about that.
Little pedestrians on sidewalks and those already crossing at intersections.
It doesn't matter if you've got the stop sign or don't have a stop, if they crossed,
you've got to stop.
And people said, well, I didn't have a stop sign.
They're J walking.
Well, you know what?
So what they're J walking?
You're going to hit them.
Can't do it.
How many times have you run into that where people pedestrians have been hit?
Ever run into that?
We've had a few.
It's not super common, but we do have quite a bit of schools in our area that we control
that have the crosswalks and busy high school mornings and things like that.
I just want to get, you know, I see this on YouTube when children are hit.
And I just, I mean, that's just terrible.
There'll be damage to the rest of their lives and it's scary.
But children just, they just run out and they do stupid things sometimes and that's just
the way it is.
Mm hmm.
All right.
Mainly the whole world needs to slow down.
Yeah.
And, you know, all right.
We have a stop sign right here on Victory Ave in your front of this building and occasionally
during the break, some of the news is on I go out there and just get some fresh, you
know, fresh air.
People are blowing that stop sign all the time.
They don't even, you sometimes you make an effort to, you know, hit the break a little
bit and cause some people don't even make that effort because it's 545 in the morning
and they figure well, no one's around and they blow the stop sign every time.
And it's just, I want to go after them and like, go and repile citizens are ass citizens
or that's not yelling at them.
Of course, now we have cameras and everything everywhere so you can catch people with license
plate readers and all that kind of stuff.
Well, all right.
Let's talk about the next item here, yield to pedestrians crossing highways or walking
on shoulders.
Yeah.
You really shouldn't walk on a highway unless I catch your car breaks down.
You don't really have a choice.
But I see on those live PD shows, people just walking on the highways, you know, they're
homeless or whatever and they're hitchhiking and they just walk along the highway.
It's dangerous because cars, especially at high speeds of 70 miles an hour, I mean,
they not easy to control the car at that speed.
And if they hit you sometimes, I can't imagine not knowing it.
But there are cases where people say, I didn't know I hit him.
How could you not know?
Got to be a thug.
You got a broken windshield.
You got a dead.
Yeah.
It was a story once where this woman and it was a famous news story at the time.
She hit somebody and he went through the windshield and she went home, parked the car in the garage,
didn't know what to do.
And the guy was just in the windshield is just there, but he wasn't dead.
And he woke up and he tried to work his way out of the windshield and he called police.
This woman just just hoping that the whole thing would go away.
He got a guy with his head into your car through the windshield.
It's not going to go away.
But she hit him on the road.
He was crossing the street and she just hit him.
Wow.
Yeah.
If you want to Google that story, it's very, and it made a big new story one time.
I'd never pass a vehicle stopped at a cross walker intersection or a pedestrian.
Again, this, you know, it's common sense and a good friend of mine said, common sense
is not common and people do that all the time.
They'll pass somebody on the road and there's a pedestrian in there and sometimes you can't
stop.
I like when they beep the horn, but that's going to change anything.
Mm-hmm.
Not going to change anything.
Bicycleists must yield to pedestrians, landed bicycles on the road.
And I don't know what rules they have to follow on the road.
I'm not sure.
Maybe you can fill me in.
They have to follow on the road.
They have to, they have to, they have to fill the rules of the road.
Like a motor vehicle?
Yes.
Because sometimes they think we've in and out and they don't, you know.
They think because they're smaller, they fit more directions, but they can't pass vehicles.
The same way if someone stopped for a crosswalk and you go around them and you can't see
around that vehicle, they could hit someone.
And be especially conscious around young or disabled pedestrians, give them extra room.
You know, this is not really pedestrians per se, but I guess maybe it could.
When I see workmen, I kind of move way over to the left side of the road because I know
they can open that door and I'm going to clip the door.
I know I am if I go at a regular thing.
If you know they're working, you know they're going to get in and out of their trucks.
So I kind of like, well, if there's nobody coming in the left lane, I kind of weave over
a little bit, give them extra room because you don't want to hit these, you know, first
of all, if you knock their door off, you get a damaged car and you don't want to hit
the person either to go a break for a second here, talk about officer, deputy friendly.
So what is, what is involved with deputy friendly?
So I work patrol full time and then I schedule events with schools and I teach safety topics
for children's of all ages.
I go through kindergarten pre K all the way up to high school.
I will, I will go in and talk about how to keep themselves safe, how to interact with
police, cyber bullying, internet safety, using digital devices, things like that, how to
become a police officer, what you need to do, some different training, different aspects
of our department, things like that.
When I was in back in the 60s, when I was in grammar school, we had occupation day,
I didn't call that.
Whenever I was in occupation day, a good friend of mine who I'm still contact with on Facebook
by the way from grammar school, David Serret, his father was a police officer and I said,
oh, I want to be a police officer and he said, you know what, I'll bet my dad can lend
you his hat.
So we did, he had an extra police hat and I wore it, of course it was like 20 sizes,
too big for my head, but I got to wear it that day and I said, I want to be a police
officer or an ice cream man or stock car driver or I want to be on the radio.
Those are my four choices.
And somehow I whittled on ice cream man, yeah, but in the winter, how am I going to make
any money?
You know, against the ice cream stock car driver, really in the winter, the stock car races
aren't around radio, they can do that year round and I took that job instead.
There isn't enough money you can offer me to be a police officer.
I couldn't, first of all, I couldn't deal with this stupidity of the, I'd be tasing
everybody.
I didn't do that.
I'd walk up to the car.
Can I see your license?
Why?
Please give me a license, I would have, I would last nine seconds in that job because
I couldn't deal.
You have to have the patience of a saint dealing with the public.
I've never had a job where I had to deal with the public, never on this earth that I have
a job dealing with the public.
I don't think I could.
It's its own world.
And you know, I watch these YouTube videos all the time of people getting stopped and people
shoplifting and these police officers have the patience of a saint.
I don't know how they do it, you know, I didn't do nothing.
I didn't do nothing.
I'm pregnant.
I can't breathe.
I didn't do nothing.
All these things.
You shoplifted.
You were on camera doing it.
That's not me.
It is you.
It was shoplifting.
And I just couldn't deal with it.
And they're still very polite to them.
Please put your feet in the car of the handcuffs to tight.
Let me loosen them for you.
I'd make them as tight as I possibly could and the police officer had the best line on
one of these videos.
I watched a couple of months ago.
She shoplifted a target.
I don't know how Walmart and Target are making any money, by the way.
Everybody's shoplifting for those stores.
Anyway, she shoplifted and they had her in cops and they're going to send her to jail
because it was over $1,000 worth of stuff.
And she said, but I get to pick my kid up from school.
And the police officers said, well, you put your to shoplifted earlier in the day.
That was great.
You should have probably showed up that way, you don't have this time crunch.
I think it's just books and they let you out on a bond and you're at an hour or two.
But I think my kid up from school.
We hear a lot of interesting stories, or how do you keep your patience?
You know, you know, it's got to be nice and keep being nice till it's time to not be
nice.
And then we're nice again.
Does anybody have a license when they drive all these on on the live PD shows?
I see them stop people.
I don't have my license with me.
I've been carrying a license in my wallet since I'm 17 years old.
It's never been out of my pocket except when I'm sleeping at night.
How do these people not have their license insurance registration?
Oh, I don't have it.
What do you not pick at your license before you leave the house?
I'm going to one day I got into the car and then my license.
I sneakly went back down the street and make sure nobody's like, I ran into my house
and go get and go get the license.
I don't know.
I'm like, they were going to be waiting right there.
We've been waiting 38 years for you, Mr. Rosen, now we got ya.
We finally got our distracted pedestrians can be as dangerous as distracted drivers,
safety tips for young and disabled pedestrians, blind pedestrians, stop at least 10 feet away
from anyone using a white cane or a guide dog.
Yeah, think that would be common sense.
School bus stops stop at least 20 feet from a bus with flashing red lights in both directions
until the lights are off.
Now, here's what people have a problem with if there's a boulevard and there's an island
between both sides of the road, you still have to stop or no?
Not if it's a divided.
So it has a medium barrier.
If there's a medium with grass here, then you can go.
But even if it's a double yellow line, you got to stop because you don't know what kids
are going to do.
They're wild.
They're getting off from school and they could be crossing, they don't just necessarily
go to the side of the road.
School's out in crosswalks.
So they posted speed limits and yield to children in crosswalks.
Crosswalks are intersections, you know, we have a school right down the block here.
And sometimes I'll have to go down Ohio and they're just darting all over the place because
they're grammar school kids, they're not high school kids and they're just darting
at Starbucks right down the street and they're just jutting out all over the place.
Just what kids are.
That's it.
You just got to you got to know that and then add a phone into the mix if they're looking
down.
They're not looking up.
Oh, I'm glad you brought that up.
So looking at their phones while they're crossing the street, we see that.
You can't wait to get to the other is it what's on that phone that's so important?
Are you willing to sell your stock portfolio within seconds?
Do you have eBay and it's closing in on the final moments we got to put your last bit?
What is so important that you can't wait till you get to the other side?
Mm hmm.
That's a big problem nowadays is distracted drivers, distracted pedestrians on devices,
starting with things.
Let's talk about general safety tips of pedestrians use sidewalks if none walk facing traffic.
You know, when I was living in Brown, deer just north of Milwaukee, we had no sidewalks
and people had a walk in the street.
Now you say, what can you walk on the lawn because it was a culvert there.
You'd be in the ditch.
You'd be in the ditch.
So you had to walk in the street and walk as close as you can to the edge and walk
against traffic because some stay place that don't have sidewalks where bright or reflective
clothing to stay visible, especially at night.
You know, I'm driving home some day, especially in the winter when I'm coming here.
It's pitch dark and people are wearing black clothing and there's some parts that don't
have street lights.
It's just that's just the way it is and you can't see them cross only at corners or marked
crosswalks.
Yeah, we know how that is.
Stop at the curb, look left, right, left again before crossing.
Oh, you know, I should have played to the jingle.
Don't cross the street in the middle in the middle in the middle in the middle in the
middle of the block.
It's your ears to look up, teach your eyes to see, walk up to the corner where the coast
is clear.
Then wait and wait until you see the light turn green.
You remember that jingle?
Mm hmm.
I think we should bring it back.
Yeah, it was it was back in the 60s.
Oh, wow.
How do I remember that?
Huh?
Can't remember the words of the National Anthem, but I remember that dopey jingle.
All right.
Stop at the curb, look left, right, and then again before crossing, wait for approaching
vehicles to pass before stepping into the street.
I'll tell this famous story.
I was rain over James Stewart, the actor.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, oh, wow.
It's a wonderful life.
George Bailey.
Here's the story real quickly.
So I'm in Beverly Hills.
I'm with a bunch of guys.
We're in a business meeting in San Diego.
I said, we got a score of Los Angeles.
I want to go to the stars homes.
We bought this map from some kids sitting on the street for five bucks.
It's the map to the stars home.
It was legitimate in that map.
So, you know, getting five bucks and I got the map.
And we're driving.
And this lady is walking across the street, not at the corner, walking across the street
with her dog on Roxbury Drive and she crosses waves to me.
Thank you.
I'm starting to go.
And this old man comes out of his house.
He's got the sailor cap upside down, pull down, and he steps into the sidewalk, and
I stop.
And he waves me on.
And he steps into the street and starts to walk.
So I jam on the brakes and he waves me on again.
And he continues to walk into the street.
On the a stop that cars had missed the steward, please cross and he gave me a salute.
The day that I was ran up for James Stewart.
Wow.
Could you imagine how famous I would have been?
Don't be guy from Wisconsin, runs over a national icon.
George Bailey.
I wouldn't want to be a part of that title.
No.
So that's my story.
I was running over James Stewart because he was crossing in the middle of the street,
stepping into the street.
You should have stayed on the sidewalk.
Go ahead and left.
But anyway, that was his wife crossing the street with the dog.
He's trying to catch up to them.
Check for drivers and parked vehicles before crossing in front of them and watch for bicycles
on both sidewalks and roads.
Again, bicycles jut out all the time, especially kids on bikes.
And you don't want to beep at them.
Don't beep because if you do, you'll scare them of flying off the bike.
What about these motorized bikes?
Well, kids put these lawnmower engines on the bikes.
Those aren't street legal.
No.
No, if it has a motor, it has to be registered.
And what about these electric scooters, you see?
Like the Worley Bird ones that people drive around town?
No, yeah, just they put their stand on.
It's like a motorcycle you do, you know, kick with, but they were battery operated.
Mm-hmm.
That was a lot to be on the street.
Oh, no, huh?
I don't know how there's our license, but I don't think they're like very high powered.
No, they're not.
They just battery operated.
Yeah, just a small battery.
Yeah, so it just, it doesn't have a motor that it doesn't have to be registered,
but they still have to follow rules of the road.
You know, if they're riding in the road, you still need to obey the law.
Deputy Crystal Vanegas from the Racine County Sheriff's Department.
We're talking about our Racine County Traffic Safety Commission monthly get together,
pedestrian safety today.
And we want to thank you before we get to your notes, because you got bonus notes.
Bonus notes.
This is the stuff they wouldn't trust me with.
They said, no, no, no, no, yeah, this is police stuff only we can't do.
All right, so here, we want to thank Val.
I'm going to blow this name.
I know it.
Dan Colovich.
I think I'm close to it.
Dan Colovich, battle Dan Colovich and Casey Morganson from the Racine County Communications
for their work on the posters and social media distribution, these monthly traffic safety
tips.
All right.
And Tom Knitter, who is organizing this special thank you to Deputy Crystal.
Good.
Thank you for having me.
All right.
So there you go.
We got a nice thank you in there.
Okay.
Quick review.
We talked about pedestrians always have the right way.
There's no exceptions.
Yeah.
But what if?
No, there's no what ifs.
They always have the right way.
Yeah.
But what?
No, there's no but what's they always have the right way.
Distracted pedestrians can be dangerous as distracted drivers.
If you're crossing the street looking at yourself on not paying attention, you know, what
do you think?
Step into a manhole and then we'll just never see you again.
Or you'll get hit by a car because, you know, you're not paying attention.
And then we have general safety tips for pedestrians and also school bus stops because
kids just run out and that's just the way they are and it's never going to change.
So look out for kids, especially you had some bonus points.
Just to reiterate a little bit for the pedestrians.
So they are keeping themselves safe with crossing at proper crosswalks.
The corner, not the middle of the road, not in the middle of the block coming between
vehicles.
You can't see the car.
We can't see you.
So making sure you're wearing bright clothing, not looking down.
If you're walking or running, having proper attire for that.
If it's nighttime or dusk or dawn, having some sort of light, things like that to keep
yourself safe because you are going to feel it if a car hits you.
So you got to watch out there.
I went so this guy kid crossing the street, he was a kid.
He was wearing a baseball cap, but he had a flashing light on the baseball cap on
the top of it.
That's genius.
That's the night.
A little light flashing light on the top, blinking on the top of his baseball cap.
I said, that's, that's you.
Who marketed that thing?
Everybody walks at night should have one of those on their head.
And bicycles, you have to have lights on your bike.
If you're driving a dusk and you don't have a light on that bike back in front, you're
in danger because they won't see you.
They're not going to see you.
And you'll find a twisted wreck in the street and it'll be your bicycle.
Hopefully you won't get hurt by it.
Well, this is, you know, this stuff is very important when you hear this.
Now, if you missed any part, we're going to podcast the interview later on today.
Just go to wrjn.com, civic media.us, Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your
podcast, you'll find it there later today.
And anything you want to add?
Young children should not be crossing the road alone.
So parents, you got to make sure that you are teaching your children to stop, look
left, look right, look left again, wear it across properly and making sure that they're
old.
And can handle it.
You got to watch them.
Yeah.
You got to watch your kids.
This was something on on YouTube.
It was a Milwaukee bus driver.
So this little toddler walking across in the street, he stopped the bus, got out, grabbed
the kid, put him on the bus and called the police.
And lucky for that bus driver, because if that kid just top, this is going to walk.
They don't know what's going to cross wherever they feel like it, but he grabbed the kid
by the arm and dragged him into the bus.
There's cars.
It was a busy intersection and saved the kids life.
That's scary.
Now we're going to see something like 30 years from now, the kids had his own family and
there's the bus driver.
They're going to reunite for a photograph.
There you go.
It always happens.
It'll be good.
Okay.
Deputy friendly.
You have any schools you're going to be at the coming up?
Well, schools are out.
Yeah.
School is right now.
We will see where the summer takes us.
The next upcoming event is the Racine County Fair.
Oh, you're going to be out there.
I will be out there.
So I work at our Sheriff's booth with our K-9 units.
Yeah.
So I'll have some fun swag for the kids.
And then on Thursday, the kids day, I will be giving out bicycle helmets.
The kids get fitted for a helmet and they get the helmet for free and take it with them
that day.
They do need to be present because we do have to fit them for the helmet, but that's Thursday
morning of kids day.
Now, when is the County Fair?
I should know this because my wife's from Union Grove and we always go and it starts
on July 23rd.
July 23rd.
I love the Racine County Fair.
It's small enough where it's not as crowded as the State Fair and it's just easier to
get to right there on Highway 11.
But yeah, I love the Racine County Fair.
Our church has a booth there and you have the, you inside or outside of the tent?
We're inside at like one of the gates and we have like a tent set up over our booth.
Oh, that's good.
Are you going to be out there yourself?
Yep.
I will be out there every day.
Well, that's a free helmet for the kids, huh?
Yep.
Thursday morning.
So they get sized up and when did they get the helmet?
They get it that day.
Oh, really?
Yep.
But we have a bunch of different sizes.
We'll actually fit them.
Make sure which one fits them properly and then we send them on their way with it and
hope they wear it.
Now, why is it when I was a kid and I hate to get, I sound like my grandfather when I
was a kid, the helmet didn't exist for bicycle riders.
They just didn't exist.
There's no such thing as a helmet for a bicycle rider.
If my mother knew where I was doing with my bicycle, we had a giant pit in the back which
now became a shopping mall, which is now getting knocked down, but it was a giant slope and
we used to ride her by the bikes used to tumble down and we used to get up.
No helmet.
How did we survive?
Why was there no helmet for kids back then?
I mean, it's come a long way.
When did somebody say you don't want too many kids getting concussions and cracking their
heads open?
Let's get a helmet.
It didn't happen to what the 70s or 80s?
Where's the 60s?
Pretty late.
Yeah, pretty late.
It's the same thing.
Look at football helmets.
Right.
They used to wear leather.
That's car drivers.
Yep.
Lots, lots over the years developing.
Now, what about a motor?
Here's the thing people don't understand.
You have to use a helmet, you know, a motorcycle helmet if you're in Wisconsin.
No, you're required to have eye protection.
Oh, really?
What, you don't get bugs in your eyeballs?
I guess so.
I mean, I would want to bug in my eyeball.
No, but there are some states that do require helmets for motorcycles, but not in Wisconsin
for some reason.
I wonder why?
I mean, first of all, you shouldn't have to have a law to tell you to wear a helmet.
You should know that if you, you know, really had a dump on his Gary Busy, the actor coming
out, got his brand new bike, just rolled it out of the garage of where he was getting
affixed.
Boom.
He fell off the bike and had a concussion.
It was never right since.
I don't know.
It's just a few feet from where he picked up his bike.
Mm-hmm.
It can happen anywhere.
It can happen anywhere.
All right.
We're seeing County Deputy Crystal Vanegas is here and she is Deputy Friendly and coming
this fall you're at the schools.
You'll be at the County Fair July 23rd, 3rd, okay?
You'll be at the County Fair.
Look for them and if you have kids and they don't have bike helmets, you'll be fitted
for one and get a free bike helmet.
Yes.
Thursday morning though.
Thursday morning only.
Yep.
But it's, it's a real helmet.
It's not made of like cheap plastic or anything.
They help their, their from bell.
They're, they're safety standards.
How many expected give away?
It's usually around 300 helmets.
Whoa.
Well, good for you.
Good for you.
Thank you Deputy Crystal.
I do appreciate you coming here.
Thank you for having me.
And thanks to Tom Nader for setting this all up with the Racine County Traffic Safety
Commission.
That's really neat.
All right.
And we'll be back next month.
Who knows what we're going to talk about.
We have, we've never run out of things to talk about.
I thought you were on your phone there for a second.
I'm going to say, you know, don't you know the rule?
No phones in the studio.
All right.
Thank you Deputy.
Thank you.