Walking is good for you. Every day, more people experience the wellbeing that comes from simple walks around the neighborhood or to nearby places. Unfortunately, as walking increases, so do traffic fatalities. The development of safe cars and better infrastructure has not yet caught up to the trend of walking. A whopping 3/4 of the crashes occur during the dark hours, at dusk or at dawn.
GHSA reports about an alarming 10% increase in pedestrian fatalities in 2015, of which 75% occur when it’s dark.
In a new report on pedestrian crash statistics, the GHSA (Governors Highway Safety Association) estimates a 10% increase in fatal pedestrian crashes from 2014 to 2015. Here are some quick facts:
- Total number of traffic fatalities shows a slight decline over the last 5 years and a significant decline 2005-2010.
- Today, pedestrian deaths make up 15% of all traffic-related fatal casualties, up from 11% less than 10 years ago.
- 76% of all pedestrian accidents occur from dusk to dawn.
- Bicyclists, runners, joggers, skateboarders and rollerbladers are not included in these numbers. Typically, 700 bicyclists and 200 “others/unknown” are also killed in traffic each year.
- Sadly, this brings the total estimated number of “non-occupant” (pedestrians, bicyclists, runners etc.) traffic fatalities for 2015 up to over 6,000.
Vision for Zero Traffic Fatalities
More and more cities and municipalities embrace the Vision Zero philosophy as a way of planning for infrastructure improvements that take the safety of all road users into consideration. However, infrastructure projects are costly and take time. Vision Zero was first launched in Sweden in the mid 90’s and has in the last year taken the US with storm. What many don’t know, is that since decades before Vision Zero, Swedes have worked on increasing the use of personal safety reflectors. Today, 90% of Swedish kids and 30%-50% of adults wear reflectors regularly. Insurance companies give out reflectors for free because it improves their bottom line and many stores carry them in a variety of styles. Instead of 3 nighttime accidents for each in daylight, Sweden has less than one! Numbers from the other Scandinavian countries are similar. Use safety reflectors as a quick and fun way to increase safety for yourself independently of the infrastructure.
We understand that reflective vests and high-viz colors are not very attractive, so we created funflectors so you can match your style no matter what. We even have black reflectors which look awesome on a black jacket or bag!
Sources:
NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts, 2013 Data, http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812124.pdf
GHSA Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State 2015, http://www.ghsa.org/files/pubs/spotlights/spotlight_ped2015.pdf