Thursday, April 26, 2012

Visualizing Pedestrian Crashes

A nice (or maybe not-so-nice) summary of pedestrian and bicycle crashes in the US.

California Car Accident Lawyer

7 comments:

  1. The one that really struck me (no pun intended) was the statement that 11% of all motor vehicle fatalities are pedestrian deaths.

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  2. What ever is done, it is inevitable that people will still be hit.

    Why does the US not make cars safer for pedestrians like Europe and Asia???
    They are both required to pass testing to ensure pedestrian safety.

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  3. And these statistics are just for the US--worldwide they are much higher (e.g. on par with deaths from malaria).

    I don't think it is "inevitable" that people will be hit--though you're right that we probably won't be able to totally eliminate pedestrian deaths. Improving vehicle technology is definitely a good first step, and we are starting to see more of that here in the US. But we also need a serious cultural shift: many pedestrian deaths are avoidable, even with today's technology, if we choose to design our streets and vehicles to accommodate more than just cars...

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  4. Katie, here is an interesting article from a few years ago. Not sure what the US is waiting for! At a recent conference we were told that NHTSA is working on this regulation, but it lacks public support. Perhaps nobody knows about this?

    http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2007/12/the-truth-about-europes-pedestrian-safety-legislation/

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  5. Do you happen to know anything about the current status of this legislation in Europe?

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    1. After some research, I found that there is a global standard for pedestrian safety called the GTR. It is law everywhere except the US. NHTSA is apparently still "reviewing".

      I think Europe started in 2009?
      http://www.euroncap.com/Content-Web-Page/ed4ad09d-1d63-4b20-a2e3-39192518cf50/pedestrian-protection.aspx

      What can be done here in the US to move NHTSA forward?????

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  6. Thanks for the link, I'm definitely going to look into this one!

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