Traffic Safety:

Safety Facts About Pedestrians

On average, a pedestrian is killed in a traffic crash every 113 minutes, and injured in a traffic crash every 8 minutes.  68,000 pedestrians were injured in traffic crashes in 2004.  Time to watch out!  Scary thought, but the numbers are actually going down from previous years.

Quick Statistics:

• 69% of the fatalities were male.
• 8% were children under the age of 15.
• 15% were 70 years or older.

The data also shows that 16-20 year olds accounted for the highest number of fatalities followed by the 70+ age group.  Time of day also seems to play a huge roll in the fatality statistics.

Quick Statistics for Time:

• 40% of all fatalities for the age group of 16 and under occurred between 3 and 7 p.m..
• Between 8 and midnight accounted for 30% of all pedestrian fatalities.  Compared to 12% for 8 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

The final note is about pedestrian fatalities is the oh so common alcohol statistic.  Either the driver or the pedestrian was reported in nearly 47% of the traffic crashes that involved a fatality.  Pedestrians were under the influence 34% of the time while only 13% involved the driver.  Most deaths occurred in California followed up by Texas.  Florida was a close third.

So...if your 17 year old son plans on walking home from a party on a Friday night, maybe you should offer to pick him up!

Information provided by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration