Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long history of helping people make smart financial decisions. We have maintained this reputation for more than four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in what steps to take next. Car accidents involving pedestrians are all too common. The most recent fatal pedestrian accident was the death of Dwayne Haskins, an NFL quarterback who was hit and killed while crossing a highway in South Florida.
Whether you're walking or driving, it's imperative to be aware of pedestrians in your environment. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for drivers and pedestrians to perform unsafe maneuvers that put them in danger. Looking at the death toll alone, California had more than any other state, with 432 pedestrian deaths. Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas accounted for nearly half of all deaths, or 46%.
Data analysis was performed by Richard Retting of Sam Schwartz Consulting. The JPEG files for the following infographics are available for download under Resource Downloads below. The GHSA website highlights the initiatives it proposes to reduce pedestrian fatalities and has examples of programs in place in some states to improve pedestrian safety. Of course, cities, where people walk the most, have more pedestrian deaths, so the index plots the number of pedestrians who die against the number of people who walk.
The report found that older pedestrians, people of color, and pedestrians in low-income neighborhoods had the highest risk of fatal accidents. More pedestrians die in car accidents than in previous decades, and the most recent road safety data shows that the trend is likely to continue, with pedestrian fatalities rising sharply as overall traffic fatalities decline. Although Alabama has fewer fatal pedestrian accidents than some of the other, more dangerous states, it has a large number of uninsured drivers for its population.
