Fla. Campaign Aims to Stop Bike, Pedestrian Deaths

A new Florida Department of Transportation website is trying to reduce the high number of bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities in the Tampa Bay area.

The St. Petersburg Times reports that the state used $125,000 to hire an advertising firm, which created a campaign and a website.

SeeTheBlindSpots.com features safety tips for bicyclists and pedestrians, crash data and images that use trains, tanks and elephants to represent how much damage cars can do to pedestrians.

The goal is to reduce pedestrian deaths in the Tampa Bay region by 20 percent in three years.

Florida leads the nation in bicycling and pedestrian fatalities. And the Tampa Bay area is one of the worst in Florida. In 2009, the region averaged seven pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities a month.