Local and state leaders are walking the streets of Pinellas County as part of what's called a road safety audit.

  • Officials walk along a stretch of 54th Avenue N in search of dangers
  • Group spends several hours looking for possible risks
  • More than 50 items ended up on their list

The audit involves officials from Pinellas County, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Health and Welfare Association, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, PSTA, the City of St Petersburg, Kenneth City and Kenneth City Police.

Led by Debra Jaramillo, the county's traffic engineering supervisor, the group discussed a game plan. Then there were marching orders given: find anything unsafe along 54th Avenue North from 66th Street North to 71st Street North.

"What brought this on was, we had a complaint from a lady who lives south of 54th Avenue North that she'd seen many accidents on this corridor and a guy that was known in the neighborhood was hit and killed," she said.

As part of the audit, the group spends several hours walking the street, looking for anything that may pose a danger to traffic and pedestrians. Even something as small as an uneven crack in the sidewalk gets the group's attention, according to Deputy H. Miller.

"Because somebody can trip on that, and when they trip on that little sidewalk and they trip the wrong way they can trip into oncoming traffic," Miller said.

More than 50 items ended up on the group's hit list. Each one given a priority and then assigned to the agency responsible for follow up.

For information on road safety audits, visit the Federal Highway Administration website.