Pedestrian safety is a complicated issue because all participants in a commuting environment are stakeholders and share responsibility for each other’s safety. But pedestrians are the most vulnerable.
The issue has been in the forefront of my mind because my 11Alive traffic co-anchor, Rachel Cox-Rosen, photojournalist Stephen Boissy and I covered several incidents where cars hit people during morning drive last month.
A driver hit and killed a woman who was jogging along Cobb Parkway near Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw in the pre-dawn hours on Sept. 8. The next day, a cyclist got hit by a car on Williams Street at 10th Street in Midtown around 8 a.m. Then Sept. 11, a person darted into traffic on North Druid Hills Road east of I-85, in Brookhaven, police said. Their impact with a driver’s windshield killed them.
Just one week later, a driver hit and injured a city of South Fulton police officer on Cascade Road around 7 a.m. A helicopter ambulance airlifted Cpl. Cornelius Wood to Grady Hospital, and he is still recovering from his injuries.
The Georgia State Patrol told 11Alive and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the investigation into Wood’s incident continues, as they review bodycam footage and other incidents. I was at that scene soon after it happened, and the damage on the vehicle that hit Wood looked extensive.
Police said the drivers in both the Brookhaven and Midtown incidents were also not at fault because pedestrians at both scenes had entered the road.
In any case, the risk to the people outside of the cars was far higher.
National Governor’s Office of Highway Safety numbers reflect this danger to commuters outside of cars. The GHSA projected that 7,148 pedestrians died on U.S. roads in 2024. They have to project the numbers, as there is a latency and long process in acquiring the final, precise data. And while that number has decreased in the last couple of years, it is still 16.4% higher than in 2016.
As with all road fatalities, pedestrian deaths saw a sharp rise during the high-speed hellscape years in and following the COVID-19 shutdown, peaking in 2022.
Only 4,109 pedestrians died in the U.S. in 2009, so the figure has risen by approximately 3,000. That is an 80% increase. And while both traffic deaths and pedestrian deaths have decreased in the last couple of years, pedestrian fatalities have decreased at a smaller rate. The proportions are off for the most at-risk commuters, as pedestrian deaths accounted for 18% of all traffic fatalities. That percentage has steadily increased, the study notes, since 2009.
Put another way, deaths for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles increased 80% since 2009, while there was only a 13% increase in all other traffic deaths.
As the days get shorter than they were in September, the risk for those on foot could increase. A different federal data set shows that nearly 80% of pedestrian deaths occurred in dark hours several years ago.
Just as we discussed in last week’s piece on the large amount of school bus crashes in Georgia since the start of the school year, driver behavior is key. Despite the prevalence of hands-free technologies and the passing of the 2018 law, distracted driving is a huge problem. Features inside of cars make piloting one far easier, which can take a driver’s mind off their incredible responsibility of piloting a 2-ton missile.
And patience and empathy seemed to plummet during the tense times of the pandemic, two character tenets of which there seems to be a drought in society, overall. As people selfishly, mindlessly and distractedly rush around, they put each other at far more risk.
“They” is “we.”
Pedestrians play a role, too, as they also make unpredictable, sometimes selfish moves whilst riddled with distraction and haste. But in those cases, “they” is “we,” too. And these “theys” have a much higher risk of death or injury when hit by a car than another driver or vehicle passenger does.
Drivers should drive around pedestrians the same way they expect other motorists to behave around them when they are walking. And walkers, runners and bikers should also act decisively and considerately, as they would hate to unexpectedly hit someone when they are driving.
The pedestrian community has given me severe flak for saying that pedestrian safety is a two-way street. I still maintain that it is. But that street has six lanes and five of them belong to drivers. Everyone in that environment is responsible for its safety, but the ones pulled by horsepower and protected by airbags carry a bigger mantle.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com.
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