Vehicles killed 7,342 pedestrians, the equivalent of 40 passenger jets falling from the sky and an increase from 4,092 a year earlier, but the jump in deaths isn’t a one-year aberration.
Kelcie Ralph, an associate professor at Rutgers University who studies transportation safety, said pedestrian crashes have increased 80% since 2009.
Ralph cautions against blaming individuals for their fates. She said governments can save lives by redesign and regulation, such as slower speed limits enforced by cameras.
“Every time we build a roadway, we say we care about safety, but we care about speed and vehicle flow first and foremost. And so in a way,” Ralph said, “the number of deaths on a roadway is a reflection of these choices that we’ve made.”