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Rachel D’Oro

(c) ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

11/07/97

   The dozen homeless men who gathered in the foyer of the Anchorage Rescue Mission on Thursday morning had one thing in common: neon yellow hats that screamed for attention.

   The striking, day-glow headgear with silver trim is a gift from Anchorage Safe Communities, a pedestrian safety coalition. The group is handing out 190 of the knit hats to homeless men and women this week in an attempt to reduce the number of people who get hit by cars.

   The project began at the rescue mission at 2823 E. Tudor Road, which is near a busy intersection that averages 75,000 vehicles a day.

   ''This will make me feel safer when I walk across the street,'' mission resident Billy Leavitt said after donning a hat. ''I like it a lot.''

   The coalition considers homeless people vulnerable to being hit by cars because they are out and about more. The hats, donated by the Alaska Highway Safety Planning Agency, are an attempt to make the men and women more visible while keeping them warm, coalition leader Diana Hudson said.

   The group hopes to expand the program by raising money to buy bright hats for other vulnerable pedestrians, including senior citizens and schoolchildren. The more bright headgear, the safer Anchorage will be for walkers, who are largely invisible after dark, Hudson said.

   ''We won't be happy until we see everyone wearing reflective hats,'' she said. The city falls woefully short when it comes to safe streets and sidewalks, the coalition found during a five-year study.

   From police reports, the study found that from 1991 to 1995, Anchorage averaged 9,000 crashes a year. During those years, 1,324 people were critically injured and hospitalized for 24 hours or more. Among those patients, 76 people died. Another 110 people died at the crash scenes, the study showed. Some of those killed and injured were pedestrians.

   Pedestrians can change their behavior a lot sooner than the city can build a safer environment, coalition members said. Wearing reflective clothing like the coalition hats is a good start, as far as associate city traffic engineer Ron Thiel is concerned.

   ''It can't hurt at all,'' he said. ''I notice that driving in the dark, you really can't see pedestrians too well. I think wearing hats is great because people are taking responsibility for themselves.''

   In its study, the coalition logged the numbers by race, age, alcohol impairment, time, and location, looking for trends. Among the most glaring discrepancies, Alaska Natives accounted for 30 percent of the pedestrian casualties -- disproportionately higher than the Anchorage population, which is about 7 percent Alaska Native.

   ''We really don't know why this is,'' Hudson said. ''We can theorize that a lot of these folks are from the Bush and may not be used to city traffic.''

   Longtime urban dwellers also find Anchorage motorists hazardous to their health, people at the Rescue Mission said. In fact, even the rabbits that hang around the mission won't venture past the grounds, residents joked.

   ''It's like a freeway out there,'' David Lockard said, nodding to the cars whizzing by on Tudor.

   Tony Muszynski said he feel he is endangering his life whenever he tries to walk across the bustling road.

   ''I have a close call every time,'' he said. ''There are a lot of crazy drivers out there.''

   Don Bettis, executive director of the mission, said the peril increases during the evening rush hour, when most mission residents arrive for dinner by foot or bus. Another treacherous time is before dawn, when residents leave for day jobs, he said. Bettis thinks the hats represent a simple solution to the problem.

   ''These hats will help keep the guys warm,'' he said, ''and at the same time, make them safer in the dark.''

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