A new edition of Transportation for America’s pedestrian safety report was released earlier this week.
This report analyzed the last 10 years of statistics, reporting 47,000 pedestrian deaths and 688,000 pedestrian injuries from walking on our nation’s streets. A new plan of action, Dangerous by Design 2011, looks to examine the problem and come up with potential solutions for this epidemic. Carelessness is often the cause of pedestrian accidents in Kansas City and elsewhere. Dangerous by Design 2011 aims to wake up motorists and pedestrians and reverse the deadly trend of interaction between the two.
Our Kansas City injury attorneys note 12 percent of those killed in traffic accidents are pedestrians. Unfortunately, most state departments of transportation neglect to recognize pedestrian safety from a budgetary perspective. Most departments allot less than 2 percent of their federal funds to pedestrian safety projects.
The new edition of the Transportation for American national report comes with data and a fact sheet providing statistics for all 50 states. The new edition also comes with an interactive pedestrian map that allows users to look at the streets and roads in their specific area to see just how safe or unsafe they may be.
Nationwide, the majority of pedestrian fatalities happen along roadways that are dangerous by design. These streets are typically engineered for fast traveling traffic with virtually little or no provision for pedestrians, in wheelchairs, on foot or on bicycles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the United States witnessed more than 4,000 pedestrian fatalities from traffic accidents in 2009. Another 59,000 pedestrians were injured. Most of these accidents happened in urban settings at non-intersections during normal daytime weather conditions. Missouri experienced nearly 100 of these pedestrian fatalities in 2009.
Missouri experienced more than 800 pedestrian fatalities between 2000 and 2009. A number of these fatalities are distributed among these main areas:
- Kansas City, 234
- Springfield, 49
- Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers, 46
- Columbia, 19
- Joplin, 19
- St. Joseph, 16
The fatal pedestrian accidents that occurred during the studied period cost the state nearly $3.5 billion.
Again, pedestrian safety rests in the hands of motorists. As motor vehicles can be a pedestrian’s biggest threat, a focused and aware driver may be the only thing to save our sidewalk travelers.
If your or a loved one has been involved in a pedestrian accident in St. Louis, Kansas City, Overland Park or any of the surrounding areas, contact the Kansas City Injury Lawyers of Horn Law to schedule a consultation as we can arrange for hospital, home, or other convenient meeting locations throughout Missouri and Kansas. Call (816) 795-7500.
