The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) recently reported that there were 6,227 pedestrians killed on U.S. roads in 2018, making it the deadliest year in pedestrian fatalities since 1990.
“While we have made progress reducing fatalities among many other road users in the past decade, pedestrian deaths have risen 35 percent,” Jonathan Adkins, GHSA Executive Director, said. “The alarm bells continue to sound on this issue; it’s clear we need to fortify our collective efforts to protect pedestrians and reverse the trend.”
Many of these deaths took place at night, and this has been consistent in previous years. The GHSA found that more than 90 percent of pedestrian deaths could be so linked over the past decade. More exposure also has its hand in the increased toll. More people are out walking, increasing the opportunity for incident. Speeding, distracted or impaired driving all have an effect too, with unsafe driving behaviors factoring into around half of the deaths reported in 2017.
The GHSA also noted that there were fatality declines in 23 states, indicating more in-depth breakdowns and examinations might be necessary.
“We have a range of proven infrastructure, engineering, and behavioral strategies that we know can reduce pedestrian deaths,” Richard Retting, the report author from Sam Schwartz Consulting, said. “Critical improvements to road and vehicle design are being made, but take significant time and resources to implement. It is also important to conduct law enforcement and safety education campaigns now to ensure drivers and pedestrians can safely coexist. It’s crucial to do everything we can to protect pedestrians utilizing a broad approach.”
The report also considered methods that might help combat pedestrian fatalities in the future, noting that vehicle occupant life expectancy is increasing even as things become more dangerous for pedestrians. The report suggested such approaches as targeted law enforcement efforts, new engineering undertakings, and safety assessments.