Diplo Plates and Me in The Crosswalk (Crosshairs?)

Ambassador Maria Isabel Salvador

2535 15^th St. NW

Washington, DC 20009

Ambassador Salvador,

I write you as a neighbor – for more than 20 years I have lived a few blocks from the Embassy – as a pedestrian and as a parent.

This morning someone who I presume works at the Embassy of Ecuador illegally drove their car in front of me as I crossed 15^th St. in the pedestrian crosswalk in front of the Embassy. I say I presume because the car, east bound on Euclid, crossed the eastbound crosswalk to enter into the driveway of the Embassy. The car then drove in the driveway to the metal gate and remotely opened the gate and drove through. The license plate was a diplomatic plate – I don’t know if it had a D or a S on it. I think the numbers were some zeros then 125. (00125, 0125).

When the car crossed into the crosswalk, I was already half way across the road. When I left the corner, the car was not at the intersection. As 15^th St is one way northbound, it is not usual to expect an eastbound car to being turning right – while it does not take a right turn to enter the Embassy’s driveway from eastbound Euclid, it does require crossing a crosswalk that would not be crossed by a car going straight (from the pedestrian’s point of view it as if it was a right turn). While the driver did not come within inches of hitting me, the car did come “closer than comfort”. Let alone that entering a crosswalk in a car when a pedestrian is in the crosswalk is illegal in Washington, DC.

I walk past the Embassy often – I was on my way home from walking with my daughter to her school. My children as well as many other parents’ children walk past the Embassy daily. Eastbound cars on Euclid crossing the crosswalk to get into the Embassy’s driveway are a safety concern to me. I hope that as part of the neighborhood, pedestrian safety around the Embassy would also be a concern of the Ambassador and staff of the Embassy of Ecuador.