According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traffic accidents involving pedestrians occur with alarming frequency across the United States. Thousands of pedestrians are killed and tens of thousands are injured each year in traffic incidents. It might surprise Colorado residents to hear that, based off of data compiled for the year 2012, a pedestrian dies on account of accident-related injuries every two hours in America.
In 2012, some 4,700 pedestrians suffered fatal injuries in accidents involving motor vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Meanwhile, approximately 76,000 pedestrians suffered non-fatal injuries. The NHTSA found that adults ages 65 and older and children between the ages of 5 and 15 accounted for a disproportionately large number of the pedestrian deaths. Moreover, nearly half of all fatal pedestrian accidents involved alcohol impairment, whether it was the involved driver or the pedestrian who had a blood alcohol content that exceeded the legal limit of .08 percent.
While pedestrian accidents are more prevalent in large urban centers, the NHTSA also extrapolated from its data that pedestrian deaths are more likely to occur at night. Furthermore, excessive vehicle speeds increases the odds of an auto-pedestrian accident as well as the degree of an injury resulting from such an accident, according to the NHTSA.
Even with proper precautions, auto-pedestrian accidents can still occur. The financial consequences deriving from these accidents can be significant, and it is oftentimes the injured victims or the families of deceased accident victims who have to shoulder these economic burdens. In many cases, these parties seek compensation for their economic losses by pursuing civil action in the wake of the accident. A personal injury lawyer may help those injured in pedestrian accidents determine whether compensation may be warranted in their situation.
Source: CDC, “Pedestrian Safety“, October 22, 2014