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posted by martyb on Friday March 01 2019, @05:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-so-smart-phone-use dept.

The number of pedestrians hit and killed on U.S. roads has surged to the highest level [PDF] in almost three decades, new data indicates, while suggesting that a rise in SUVs and smartphone use may be to blame.

Last year, 6,227 pedestrians were killed in road fatalities — a 51 percent increase compared to 2009, according to a preliminary estimate published Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). The D.C.-based non-profit said the 2018 figure is the highest recorded since 1990.

Five states—Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas—accounted for 46 percent of all pedestrian deaths, despite representing just 33 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census data. California had the largest number, at 432.

U.S. Pedestrian Road Deaths


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @07:50PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @07:50PM (#808884)

    Here in Cali... They installed wheelchair ramps on every sidewalk corner, and audible (ping) pedestrian walk signals at every traffic light. It cost millions of dollars just for the San Diego area to do these upgrades. I haven't seen one blind person or wheelchair use these, especially dumb is the one at the end of a dead end street at the top of a steep hill that no wheel chaired person could ever get to. The potholes remain though...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @08:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @08:48PM (#808923)

    Those are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. You should be seeing the same thing in every city.

    I know I've been seeing a lot of that locally the last few years. Ramps being cut in with those textured patches and they regularly replace the cross walk buttons with ones that talk and beep to help the blind.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @05:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @05:49PM (#809189)

    If you're not disabled or in chronic ill heath or not able to leave your house for a walk, you should be weeping with gratitude while paying the inconvenience of taxes. What is it 37% top rate? Absolute bargain. Now get back on your couch and whine on the internet.