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Drivers didn't even stop for Santa -- and he was in the crosswalk.
Some motorists openly questioned the officers' holiday spirit, but police said it's not a matter of being naughty or nice. Lives are too important for that.
"We had several pedestrians struck recently," Ridgefield Police Chief Thomas Gallagher said. "We're just trying to keep people safe."
Thursday's undercover detail outside the busy Ridgefield post office on Broad Avenue produced a staggering 35 summonses and 21 warnings for not yielding to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, the chief said.
Inattentive people walking (or running) around bear a good part of the blame, police say.
"I can't tell you how many times I see folks crossing the street looking at their phones with their ear buds in," one senior officer said Friday.
Thursday's detail was about warning motorists, though.
No sooner had it ended than an 11-year-old boy was struck less than five blocks away.
The number of pedestrians hit by vehicles ordinarily increases around the holidays, but authorities say it's become something of an epidemic.
Less than two miles east of the post office, a 94-year-old great-grandmother was struck and killed by a pickup truck Wednesday in Cliffside Park.
On Thursday night, two men crossing a Teaneck street were struck -- one of whom was injured critically. That man was to receive an award this weekend for donating a kidney that saved the life of a grandmother.
Several hours later, two students were struck crossing the street outside Clifton High School.
Teeming with people and vehicles, Fort Lee is among the North Jersey towns with the most pedestrian struck -- even though police there conduct undercover details almost as frequently as anti-DWI and distracted driving operations.
Englewood also has had several pedestrians hit during this holiday season, most in the busy commercial district on and around Palisade Avenue. Two of them were struck only three blocks and barely 45 minutes apart on Friday, authorities said.
Gallagher, the Ridgefield police chief, reminded motorists that they're operating extremely heavy, dangerous machinery that can't stop on a dime at even slower speeds.
And "for safety's sake," he said, pedestrians must be just as aware.
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