In May 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its latest research findings regarding deadly pedestrian accidents in this country. The findings are based upon reported motor vehicle traffic crashes compiled in data from (1) the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS); (2) the National Automotive Sampling System General Estimates System (NASS GES); and (3) the Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS). Read: National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2021, May). Pedestrians: 2019 data (Traffic Safety Facts. Report No. DOT HS 813 079). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“Report”).
Of particular importance to our part of the country is the revelation in the new NHTSA Pedestrian Accident Report that over a third (36.2%) of the total motor vehicle fatalities reported for Chicago involved pedestrians who died in the crash, with Indianapolis reporting an unacceptably high twenty percent (20%) of its fatal motor vehicle accidents having a pedestrian victim who perished in the incident. Report, page 12.
What is a Pedestrian Accident?
According to NHTSA, a pedestrian accident involves “… any person on foot, walking, running, jogging, hiking, sitting, or lying down who is involved in a motor vehicle traffic crash.” Age does not matter when categorizing a pedestrian accident, according to NHTSA. However, the location does change whether or not a traffic incident is defined as a “pedestrian accident” in the agency’s findings: any pedestrian accident that happened on private property has not been included in the analysis.
Therefore, the latest pedestrian accident statistics for Indiana and Illinois must be assumed to be even higher than the numbers reported in the new NTHSA Report if fatal pedestrian accidents on driveways, parking lots, and other private property crash sites are considered.
Additionally, NHTSA researchers do not include incidents that many may assume to be a “pedestrian accident,” such as any accidents involving bodily injuries suffered by people on personal conveyances (i.e., skates, skateboards, scooters, toy wagons, toy cars, Segways™, baby strollers, wheelchairs, or disability-support scooters).
If these personal conveyance fatalities (like a deadly collision with someone in a wheelchair) were tallied with the new NTHSA Report findings, then the number of pedestrian motor vehicle accidents causing the deaths of victims in Indiana and Illinois presumably would escalate even more.
Latest Pedestrian Accident Findings from NHTSA
According to NHTSA, pedestrians are extremely vulnerable to dying in a motor vehicle accident in this country. In 2019, a pedestrian was killed every 85 minutes in this country from bodily injuries suffered from a traffic crash.
Other key findings from the latest NTHSA Report include:
- Pedestrian deaths account for 17% of all traffic fatalities in the country as a whole.
- A great majority of pedestrian deaths involve male victims. In 2019, 70% of all pedestrian fatalities were male.
- It is much riskier to be a pedestrian in an urban area than a rural one. Most pedestrian accident deaths happen in cities; in fact, 82% of all pedestrian accident deaths reported in 2019 happened in an urban setting.
- Hit and run accidents are the cause of twenty percent (20%) of all fatal pedestrian accidents.
- Most fatal pedestrian accidents involve a single vehicle hitting the pedestrian (90%).
- The most dangerous time to be a pedestrian on the roads is between six and nine o’clock in the evening, because this is when twenty-six percent (26%) of all fatal pedestrian accidents occur.
- Almost half – forty-six percent (46%) — of all fatal pedestrian accidents have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of at least .01 grams per deciliter for either the victim or the driver.
- Children who are 14 years old or younger are at a high risk of a deadly traffic crash, with seventeen percent (17%) of all fatal pedestrian accident victims being within this age group.
- Adults between the ages of 55 and 59 years face the greatest risk of dying in a pedestrian accident, with twenty-three percent (23%) of all pedestrian traffic fatalities involving this adult age group.
- Pedestrians who die in a traffic crash involving a single vehicle are most likely to be hit head-on, colliding with the front of the car, truck, pick-up, minivan, or SUV. Bus fatalities usually involve the pedestrian being hit in a rear impact or right-side impact with the bus.
Justice for Victims of Pedestrian Accidents in Indiana and Illinois
According to NHTSA, 17.1% of all motor vehicle accidents in Illinois involve pedestrian fatalities, while pedestrian accident deaths make up 9.0% of the total traffic collisions reported in Indiana. Report, page 9.
While the new NHTSA Report confirms that pedestrians in Illinois face a greater risk of a fatal traffic accident than those in Indiana, the reality is that anyone on foot near a traffic path (road, street, parking lot, etc.) in our part of the country faces an intolerably high danger of dying while simply walking, running, jogging, or hiking near a place where motor vehicles can be driven. It is also very dangerous for anyone to sit or take a rest near a traffic path in our part of the country.
For more on pedestrian accidents in Indiana or Illinois, read:
- Fight To Stop Fatal Pedestrian Accidents: Federal Government’s Action Plan Begins Immediately
- Pedestrian Accident Deaths in Indiana and Illinois: The Rising Danger of Dying While Walking
- The Primary Cause of Fatal Child Pedestrian Accidents is the Vehicle
- Danger of Fatal Child Pedestrian Accidents as Kids Go Back to School.
In these tragic situations placing man against machine, the laws of Indiana and Illinois do provide avenues for justice both for the pedestrian accident victim as well as the victim’s grieving loved ones. For details, see:
- Fatal Accidents and Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Indiana and Illinois
- The Importance of Accident Site Location for Personal Injury Claims in Indiana and Illinois
- Chicago Uber and Lyft Ridesharing Accident Cases are Different from Other Illinois Motor Vehicle Accident Claims.
The freedom to walk, stroll, jog, or mosey on foot near any type of traffic route in Indiana or Illinois, especially in our urban areas, should not be curtailed by the very real risk of being killed in a traffic crash as a pedestrian. Sadly, the new NHTSA Report warns us that these oftentimes preventable accidents will take the lives of pedestrians in our communities, many of them children or adults who had many years of life ahead of them. Please be careful out there!
