Feb. 19--A 56-year-old Glendale pedestrian died Thursday morning after getting struck by a car while jaywalking in Glendale the night before, marking the city's first pedestrian fatality of the year, officials said.
At around 7 p.m. Wednesday, the man was struck while crossing the street in the rain on Verdugo Road just south of Wilson Avenue, roughly 150 feet outside of a marked crosswalk, by a car heading down Verdugo, said Glendale Police spokeswoman Tahnee Lightfoot.
The pedestrian, who was not identified, sustained "severe" head injuries and was transported to a hospital, where he died just before 5 a.m.
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The driver, a 51-year-old man, remained at the scene for questioning. Police don't believe he was impaired.
The collision came on the heels of two grant-funded traffic operations conducted in Glendale in which police specifically focused on pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
Between the two operations, both of which were conducted in the last three weeks, 85 pedestrians were cited for various offenses, including jaywalking and crossing the street against a "don't walk" sign, while 31 were given warnings.
Meanwhile, six bicyclists were cited for offenses that included riding on the sidewalk, while nine were given warnings.
Police also looked for speeding or distracted drivers. In both operations combined, 31 drivers were cited, and half of those citations were issued to drivers who failed to yield for pedestrians.
The enforcement operations are part of an ongoing effort to prevent traffic-related collisions, injuries and deaths.
In the past three years, Glendale police have logged nine fatal collisions and 502 injury collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists, Lightfoot said.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
