Pedestrian Safety

  • The ten key findings from "Killed By Automobile" for New York City for 1994-97 are (p.12):
    1. Motor vehicles killed 1,020 pedestrians and bicyclists; this toll was 25% greater than the motor vehicle users who died in crashes in the same period.
    2. Those age 65 and older were more than twice as likely to be killed by an automobile as to be murdered.
    3. Where culpability could be determined, drivers were largely or strictly culpable in 74% of pedestrian fatalities and partly culpable in another 16%, meaning that drivers were at least partly culpable in 90% of fatalities.
    4. Most frequent causes of fatalities were vehicles turning into pedestrians in crosswalks, followed by speeding, and driving through a red light or stop sign.
    5. Buses killed 53 persons - one for every 11.4 million miles, or over 5 times the rate for all vehicles driven in NYC, and triple the rate for heavy trucks.
    6. Automobiles were equal-opportunity threats, killing New Yorkers of every income level and ethnic group roughly in proportion to the group's share of population.
    7. Motorists killed 50 pedestrians on sidewalks.
    8. Neighborhoods where officials clamored for crackdowns on bicyclists to safeguard pedestrians had unusually high rates of pedestrians and cyclists killed by automobile.
    9. Drunk driving was known to be present in only 4% of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities.
    10. Drivers were summonsed for moving violations in only 16% of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities; police cited less than 1% of those who killed pedestrians, for violating laws specific to pedestrian safety.
  • Younger drivers - ages 19-34 - caused 48% of pedestrian and cyclist deaths in NYC during 1994-97, although they accounted for only 25% of the cities population.(p. 11)
  • The youngest drivers - ages 19-26 - were the most damaging accounting for 25% of the deaths but only 11% of the population of NYC.
  • "Death by automobile, in NYC, is largely a matter of one group of people - young men - killing two other groups: older men, and women of all ages.
 From "Killed By Automobile" by Charles Komanoff and members of Right of Way, March 1999
  • Between 1986 and 1995, approximately 6,000 pedestrians died every year in the United States after being hit by cars. 110,000 were injured.
  • Pedestrians account for 14 percent of all motor vehicle-related deaths, yet only 1 percent of federal highway safety funds are spent on pedestrian safety.
  • Senior citizens (persons age 65 and over) comprise 13 percent of the population, but account for 23 percent of all pedestrian fatalities
  • More than 1,000 children every year are killed by motor vehicles while walking.
  • Over half - 55 percent - of all pedestrian fatalities occurred on streets - defined in engineering parlance as "Local Roads", "Collectors", and "Minor Arterials" - that run through residential neighborhoods.
  • A ten-mile per hour increase in speed, from 20 mph to 30 mph, increases the risk of death for a pedestrian in a collision ninefold. If a car going 20 miles per hour hits a person, there is a 95 percent chance that the person will survive. If that same car is going 30 miles per hour, the person has slightly better than a 50/50 chance of survival.
From "Mean Streets", a report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project on how pedestrians are getting killed and injured and the government.
  • In 1998, 69,000 pedestrians were injured and 5,220 were killed by automobiles.
 From "Traffic Safety Facts 1998: A Compilation of Motor Vehicle Crash Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the General Estimates System" by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • 76,550 pedestrians injured, 5,300 killed in 1997
 From "1997 Traffic Crashes, Injuries, and Fatalities - Preliminary Report" by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 

Other valuable sources of info:

"Killed By Automobile" by Charles Komanoff and members of Right of Way, March 1999. Includes a great deal of information on how pedestrians are usually wrongly blamed while motorists are seldomly charged with even a moving violation. Does an excellent job of reframing who is culpable in most accidents.