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Smartphones May Be To Blame For Unprecedented Spike In Pedestrian Deaths, Says Report (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the don't-text-and-drive dept.

According to a report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, the United States saw its largest annual increase in pedestrian fatalities since such record keeping began 40 years ago. "The [association] estimated there were 6,000 pedestrian deaths in 2016, the highest number in more than 20 years," reports CNN. "Since 2010, pedestrian fatalities have grown at four times the rate of overall traffic deaths." From the report: The thing that has changed dramatically in recent years is smartphone use. The volume of wireless data used from 2014 to 2015 more than doubled, according to the Wireless Association. Drivers and pedestrians who are distracted by their smartphones are less likely to be aware of their surroundings, creating the potential for danger. The Governors Highway Safety Association looked at data from the first six months of 2016 that came from 50 state highway safety offices and the District of Columbia. The complete data will be available later this year. The findings come as traffic safety experts have called for totally eliminating deaths on roadways. Near-term solutions include designing roads and vehicles to be safer. Cutting down on speeding and drunk driving are obvious targets.

8 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Darwin at work by hoover · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let Darwin do his work... ;-)

    --
    Ever wondered whats wrong with the world? http://www.ishmael.org/
    1. Re: Darwin at work by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As long as it's the victim that's at fault it makes sense.

      But modern cars requires less and less attention to drive which forces the driver to keep the mind occupied on other things to not fall into a vegetative state.

      And cars today also have a lot of touch screens, which also requires the driver to look away from the traffic.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re: Darwin at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      It's not on the driver when a witless fuckstick walks out into traffic when they wouldn't have right of way.
      Making a right turn and hit a pedestrian? Driver's fault.
      Driving straight down the road with a green light? Pedestrian's fault.
      Cars have a finite stopping distance. If you walk out into traffic without respecting physics, that's your own damn fault - even if you have right of way.

    3. Re: Darwin at work by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, the ruling is

      completely and entirely irrelevant because I was talking about some of the many countries OTHER than the USA where in many cases pedestrians either have right of way, or in cases where they don't have right of way often have guardian angle laws that mean the driver is liable by default unless proven otherwise by arduous court cases.

      For instance, if their view of the oblivious pedestrian was obscured by a parked vehicle

      Then in most countries the driver was driving recklessly and not adjusting his style to suite the conditions at the time. Often the driver here would be found liable even in countries who do consider the driver to have right of way over someone stepping into traffic. Likewise on your zebra crossing example.

    4. Re: Darwin at work by tsqr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe the appropriate response here is "whoosh".

      Though to be honest, "acute" would only be appropriate if the guardian angle was between 0 and 90 degrees. If it was between 90 and 180, "obtuse" would be more fitting.

  2. Shit article, no context by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Article cites 6000 pedestrian deaths in 2016, and calls it a spike, but offers no context of how much of an increase that is.

    Article cites pedestrian death rate has grown 4 times the overall traffic fatality rate, again without citing the base rate of either.

    This could be a huge increase, or hardly any one at all. 100 people per year could have died for first 15 years of the 20 year period, and then spiked up to 6000 in 2016, or, it could have been 5900 per year for first 15 years and slightly increased to 6000 in 2016, both sets probably fit the data, and are enormously different.

  3. Growng? by Carewolf · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wait Why is the overall rate of traffic deaths _growing_?

    Jesus Christ America, you suck!

  4. Re:Don't forget those by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the biggest issue is that people assume when they have the right of way they don't need to pay attention. Unfortunately there are too many drivers who both don't understand who has the right of way, and others who don't pay attention to anything that isn't another car.

    The safest thing to do is assume everyone else is an idiot, while I always try to exercise my right of way (otherwise it leads to more people assuming others will give way) I'm also watching everyone. e.g. I'm looking out for cars behind me while approaching the intersection.

    As others have pointed out, cars are better and more isolating than ever. When cars were worse drivers needed to slow down more for corners, they didn't accelerate as quickly, etc. There is also more traffic than ever.