Pedestrian Deaths Highest in Detroit

A new study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the fatality rate in Detroit during 2012 per 100,000 pedestrians was 3.99. Next on the list was Oklahoma City at 3.34, followed by Albuquerque at 3.24. Other cities with a number higher than three include Dallas at 3.22, Jacksonville at 3.23 and El Paso at 3.12.

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At the other end of the spectrum, the safest city for pedestrians in 2012 was Boston at 0.79. Also below one traffic death per 100,000 pedestrians were Columbus at 0.99, Baltimore at 0.97 and Louisville at 0.99. Cities on the list needed to have populations above 500,000.

In summary, the report on pedestrian fatalities said:

In 2012, 4,743 pedestrians were killed and an estimated 76,000 were injured in traffic crashes in the United States On average, a pedestrian was killed every 2 hours and injured every 7 minutes in traffic crashes.

A pedestrian, as defined for the purpose of this Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, is any person on foot, walking, running, jogging, hiking, sitting or lying down who is involved in a motor vehicle traffic crash. Also, a traffic crash is defined as an incident that involves one or more vehicles where at least one vehicle is in transport and the crash originates on a public trafficway. Crashes that occurred exclusively on private property, including parking lots and driveways, were excluded.

The 4,743 pedestrian fatalities in 2012 represented an increase of 6 percent from 2011 and were the highest number of fatalities in the last 5 years. In 2012, pedestrian deaths accounted for 14 percent of all traffic fatalities, and made up 3 percent of all the people injured in traffic crashes.

In other words, it has become increasingly more dangerous to cross the street — or lie down in one.

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