90 percent of the increase in pedestrian deaths over the last 10 years happened at night. And it wasn’t because they were distracted by phones.
The latest Governors’ Highway Safety Associaton report on pedestrian safety is out, and the good news is that the number of drivers killed in car crashes continues to decline. However, the number of pedestrians killed is the highest since 1990, and is way up since 2008. That was the depth of the Great Recession, and as the economy has recovered, so has the number of miles driven and so has the number of dead pedestrians.
© GHSA“While we have made progress reducing fatalities among many other road users in the past decade, pedestrian deaths have risen 35 percent,” noted GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins. “The alarm bells continue to sound on this issue; it’s clear we need to fortify our collective efforts to protect pedestrians and reverse the trend.”
There are a number of causes, according to the study; More people are walking, up 4 percent since 2007. But also we have drivers are acting badly:
Many unsafe driving behaviors, such as speeding, distracted and drowsy driving, pose risks to pedestrians, and alcohol impairment by the driver and/or pedestrian was reported in about half of traffic crashes that resulted in pedestrian fatalities in 2017.
© GHSA