Pedestrian Accidents: Repeating Patterns and Litigation

Abstract

Human factors analysis can be applied to pedestrian safety, but pedestrian fatalities have continued to be about 15 percent of the total traffic fatalities, many involving litigation. In some cases, pedestrian behavior is the only part of the situation that is likely to be manipulate. Fatalities are more likely at night. It does not seem likely that effective countermeasures will be introduced in the driver or the visibility environment in the near future. Efforts to encourage safe practices in walking and crossing patterns have been made with marginal effects. Litigation should recognize that drivers cannot avoid every pedestrian. The only practical approach seems to be to modify the visibility and behavior of each pedestrian. A concerted program to make every pedestrian visible by devising, distributing, and enforcing use of visibility aids seems promising. Efforts to implement such visibility improvements would recruit every agency that contacts the walking public, especially the young, old, and those using wheelchairs, bicycles, and other mobility aids.