Sheriff Shane Johnson spoke with SVI this past Tuesday and offered information on multiple developments involving the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. One was the recent story reporting that the crosswalk for Etna Elementary would finally be moved by WYDOT further south to align with the school.

“The school district, the bus barn and the school board and the Sheriff’s Office have been working on this and finally got the attention of the right people,” Johnson said. “We feel pretty good that we were able to convince WYDOT that this change needed to be made. It was pretty clear once we got the group together that it would be changed and to their credit they are making that change.”

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Johnson reiterated previous reports that stated the flashing crosswalk area would perhaps sneak up on those traveling from the south and heading northbound.

“WYDOT mentioned that they had done some studies and people were going through there too fast,” Johnson continued. “It’s a common theme, people are driving too fast. The three E’s of traffic are Environment, Education and Enforcement. There will be some extra enforcement there because that’s a factor in the safety of kids.”

Johnson went on to clarify the office’s stance on school bus violations.

“You have to stop when the sign in out,” he stated. “Everywhere except a divided highway so anywhere in Star Valley you have to stop. All of those busses have cameras now so follow-ups can be done. We share information with the bus garage and we get notifications when there are violations. I’m of the opinion when it comes to traffic enforcement that deputies have a lot of discretion. I believe that school zone violations is a no warning area. I view that as a citation area. The vast majority of people are conscious of it but it only takes one person to get someone hurt and we will bump up those efforts in that [Etna] area.”

Johnson also commented on what is an ongoing investigation involving a single-vehicle rollover in July which caused significant injury to a passenger and the driver fled the scene. That driver has not been located. Both individuals involved in the incident are undocumented persons.

“We still have the vehicle and have the name and registration of the owner but the driver is undocumented and used this as an opportunity to leave the area, meaning the country,” Johnson said. “The other difficulty in that accident is the occupant who was injured has been uncooperative and will not give us any information. The case is still open but that’s where we are on that.”