Every day about 16 pedestrians are killed in the United States due to vehicle crashes. In a recent year, nearly 6000 died.
To combat what safety advocates call a growing epidemic -- pedestrian fatalities have increased every year since 2009 -- the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in September issued 11 new recommendations in the “Pedestrian Safety Special Investigation Report.”
The series of counter measures are aimed at reducing pedestrian injuries and death by addressing vehicle-based changes, infrastructure improvements, data collection, improvements to vehicle lighting systems and other vehicle safety systems that can improve safety.
“Pedestrian safety is a universal issue – we are all pedestrians,” Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB’s chairman of said in a statement. “Pedestrian safety requires a multi-faceted approach of engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement and evaluation so all road users are provided safe facilities and use them as intended.”
The suggestions were directed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This NTSB pedestrian safety report should be a wake-up call” Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said in a statement in support of the recommendations. She urged federal, state and local policymakers to take immediate action.
Efforts, she said, should include the lowering of speed limits, widespread adoption of automated enforcement programs, and the inclusion of minimum standards requiring proven crash avoidance technologies in all new cars, like automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning and blind spot detection systems.
“Pedestrian fatalities are a solvable problem,” Chase added. “We have common sense, research-based ways to ensure that being a pedestrian is not a death-defying act.”
For abstract and summary, click here and here. To read the full report, click here.
