September 5, 2014 – Pedestrian Death and Injury

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Anchor lead:  A surprisingly large number of people are killed or injured while walking, Elizabeth Tracey reports

How many people are killed or injured in the United States each year as a result of an accident with a vehicle while they are pedestrians?  Keisha Pollack, an injury prevention expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,  who’s spearheading a pedestrian safety initiative, says the number, and the problem, are much bigger than most people realize.

Pollack:  It’s a huge problem so in 2010 there were about 4300 pedestrians who were killed in traffic crashes and about 70,000 were injured.  And when we think about what those numbers really mean we’re talking about a crash-related pedestrian death one every two hours, and a pedestrian injury about one every eight minutes, so we know this is a huge problem, and even for people who might get hit and don’t die there’s oftentimes long term disability or other consequences.   :27

Pollack says now that school is back in session in most of the country, everyone, whether walking, riding, or driving, needs to increase their vigilance by keeping music volume low, paying attention, and slowing down. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.