Pedestrians must be careful near roadways, because a distracted driver or one who is speeding could cause an accident. Someone who walks near the roads while distracted can also put his or her own life at risk.
While it’s nice to think that people always obey the rules of the road, the fact is that people don’t. Speeding, texting while driving, looking away from the road to break up an argument in the car and other kinds of situations can cause collisions. Drivers may think that just a second or two doesn’t matter, but for a pedestrian crossing the road, every second counts.
The risk of death in a pedestrian accident is directly correlated with the speed of the vehicle that impacts the pedestrian. If a vehicle, for instance, is traveling 20 mph, it’s likely that if it hits someone, that person will survive. Only around 10 percent of people who are struck at that speed die from their injuries.
Speeds of around 45 miles per hour begin to cause more serious injuries. At that speed, only around 35 percent of the people who are struck will survive an accident. The other 65 percent suffer injuries so severe that they will die as a result of the collision.
Pedestrian accidents take place fairly frequently, and around once every two hours, a person will die from being involved in one. The group that is extremely likely to be struck contains people over the age of 65. Those individuals make up 13 percent of the population but an alarming 21 percent of all pedestrian deaths.
Source: AARP, “Perilous Crossing for Pedestrians,” Brian Mockenhaupt, accessed Feb. 04, 2016