Watch for Pedestrians: The Shocking Statistics

An op-ed piece by Laurel Druke, MCYD member

It is astonishing how often one hears of a pedestrian being hit and killed in the United States. You can’t watch the local news without hearing about a man, woman, or child being hit and killed in a tragic accident involving a cross walk and a vehicle. Most of us watch the news either to hear about local political acts, or to hear about the sports highlights, or to hear about the weather; but not many of us expect to hear about so much pain and sadness involving cars and pedestrians.

We were all built to walk. We have two feet, two legs, or in some cases two wheels to move. One should never feel worried or scared to walk. One should feel confident and excited to walk a new path. This is not supposed to be an inspirational piece, but one that will make people pay attention to the shocking statistics of pedestrian deaths involving vehicles and how we, as citizens and human beings, are the only ones that can change the direction of walking to be a positive movement, not a death sentence.

Here are a few statistics to wrap your brain around:

“On average, a pedestrian is killed every two hours and injured every eight minutes in traffic crashes.”

- Traffic Safety Facts: Pedestrians, August, 2013.

“Pedestrians account for 14% of total traffic fatalities in 2011, up 3% from 2010.”

- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

“Pedestrians were one of the few groups of road users to experience and increase of fatalities in the U.S. in 2011, totaling 4,432 deaths.”

- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Those are huge numbers! Over 4,000 deaths should not have occurred because one chose to be a pedestrian that day. Everyone is a pedestrian at one time or another. We as a society need to protect pedestrians and protect drivers alike to keep one another safe while moving to the next location.  It is important to really think about oneself and soak in those numbers. Even though statistics are usually impersonal, think about someone you know, maybe your mother or father, sister or brother, daughter or son, relative, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance. Could you imagine one day hearing that they were killed in an accident that is entirely preventable?

Most pedestrians are killed because either the person walking across the street or the person driving a vehicle down the street are not paying full attention to the road in front of them. If a pedestrian is fully aware of his/her surroundings, looks both ways, and has the “go ahead” from drivers around them, this should create a safe passage across the road. Also, if the driver is fully attentive to the road in front of him/her and is concentrating on checking all mirrors and being patient while pedestrians cross the road, this would equally create a safe passage.

Many times we do not really stop at stop signs. We do the “California Stop,” which doesn’t really include fully stopping. When we are impatient, sometimes our caution is overrun by the need to get somewhere quickly. When this happens, accidents happen. Pedestrian deaths are not purposeful by any means, but they can be avoided. With the number of pedestrians increasing over the next couple of years as a result of the SMART train, we need to pay more attention to the issue of pedestrian and driver safety.

This article’s intention is to encourage patience, consciousness, and caution when driving and walking down our streets. Imagine yourself behind the wheel of your car; when you go to push the accelerator, please take a deep breath, look around you, and make sure that there are no pedestrians wanting to cross your path. It is worth your life and those of others to wait. 

Laurel Druke is a member of the Marin County Young Democrats and one of their goals is to write op-ed and articles for local news organizations like the San Rafael Patch. We meet monthly in Marin County and always encourage new faces! MCYD meetings are the 1st Wednesday of each month at 7pm. Meeting locations vary each month throughout the County. Email MarinCountyYoungDems@gmail.com for the meeting location.

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MCYD are students/young professionals between the ages of 18-35 years old who live, work, or go to school in Marin County dedicated to the values of the Democratic Party. Posts don't necessarily reflect the views of the group's entire membership. 

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