When a car and a pedestrian collide the outcome is usually bleak. Thus was the case in Lexington, Kentucky, as reported in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, when Anthony Gibbs, 24, of Clinton, Tennessee was crossing the street and was struck by a car. Mr. Gibbs was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center where he remains in a coma. My prayers go out to Mr. Gibbs, his family and friends.

An added twist to the sad story is that the suspected driver, Hector Alviter-Rivera, 23, left the scene of the collision and later his car was found abandoned. According to the article, police believe Mr. Rivera has fled the area.

In 2007, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) 4,654 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States, a  decrease of 13 percent from the 5,321 pedestrians killed in 1997. On average, a pedestrian is killed in a traffic crash every 113 minutes and injured in a traffic crash every 8 minutes. There were 70,000 pedestrians injured in traffic crashes in 2007. Most pedestrian fatalities in 2007 occurred in urban areas (73%), at non-intersection locations (77%), in normal weather conditions (90%), and at night (67%). More than two-thirds (70%) of the pedestrians killed in 2007 were males. In 2007, the male pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 population was 2.19 more than double the rate for females (0.91 per 100,000 population). In 2007, the male pedestrian injury rate per 100,000 population was 26, compared with 20 for females.

What kind of a low-life hits a pedestrian and leaves the victim lying in the street fighting for their life? This kind of accident happens far too often. In Tennessee in 2008 61 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles. Most of the time the driver had been either under the influence of alcohol, driving with an invalid license, which had probably been suspended or revoked for prior traffic violations, or they just didn’t want to accept responsibility for their actions.

If you witness a pedestrian/automobile collision take stock of your surroundings and identify the vehicle and, above all, before you attempt to render care to the victim make sure that you will not become a second victim. If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville pedestrian/motor vehicle collision contact the experienced Nashville accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates, and get a

Share The Road

so that you can best evaluate your rights and remedies.

An interesting and important report by the advocacy groups Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Partnership has caught my attention and I thought I might share it with you. Titled “Dangerous By Design” the report addresses the high rate of pedestrian deaths in the United States.

According to the report, in the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. More than 43,000 Americans, including 3,906 children under 16 have been killed this decade alone. This is the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like the kind of attention that would surely follow such a disaster.

Children, the elderly, and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in this figure, but people of all ages and all walks of life have been struck down in the simple act of walking. These deaths typically are labeled “accidents,” and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, an overwhelming proportion share a similar factor: They occurred along roadways that were dangerous by design, streets that were engineered for speeding cars and made little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle.

According to the report the ten most dangerous metropolitan areas for pedestrians are:

1. Orlando

2. Tampa-St. Petersburg

3. Miami-Fort Lauderdale

4. Jacksonville

5. Memphis

6. Raleigh, N.C.

7. Louisville

8. Houston

9. Birmingham, Ala.

10. Atlanta

The Tennessee numbers are equally troubling, with Memphis leading the pack with 47 fatalities in 2007-2008, making up 11.40% of total traffic deaths, closely followed by Johnson City with 11.10% of the total. Nashville, with 32 deaths, came in at 7.00% of the total traffic fatalities. In Nashville, where pedestrian accidents have been on the rise over the last several years, Mayor Karl Dean has seen the problem and taken action by naming a special coordinatior to make the city more walkable. The Dean Administration designated $5.2 million for sidewalks and $900,000 for bike paths.

It’s up to all of us to practice driving safety and learn to share the roads so that we can have a safe and secure place to raise our children and make our elderly citizens safe in their golden years.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville pedestrian accident contact the experienced Nashville accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates

Share The Road

, and get a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Hybrid vehicles may be the answer to freeing our country from the clutches of the oil producing states and reducing greenhouse gasses but they may create a dangerous environment for pedestrians, bicyclists and the visually impaired. Federal legislators and car manufacturers say they’re concerned about the situation and are testing several possible solutions. Technology entrepreneurs are seeing an opportunity to make a safety difference and a profit.

The newly introduced Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008, H.R. 5734, requires congress to study methods to protect pedestrians from hybrid, electric and other silent-engine technologies and consider imposing new safety standards on automakers.

According to statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we find that no visually impaired pedestrians have been killed during the last five years by hybrid vehicles, even though about six blind pedestrians die annually in the United States. NHTSA Researchers compared the number of pedestrian and bicyclist crashes involving both hybrid electric vehicles and more common internal combustion engine vehicles. Findings show that vehicles with the quiet HEV engines have higher-incidence crash rates. The study also showed:

•Pedestrians were twice as likely to be hit by an Hybrid Electric Vehicle when the vehicle was slowing or stopping, backing up, or entering or exiting a parking space.

•Bicyclist crashes involving hybrid engine vehicles at intersections or interchanges were significantly higher than those involving internal combustion engine vehicles.

In 2008, there were 61 pedestrian fatalities in Tennessee. The good news is that this number was down from the previous year.  In 2004, the Tennesese Department Of Transportation instituted the “Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Policy”, which specifically addressed the need to improve transportation conditions for pedestrians by designing infrastructure that provides safe, accessible facilities for walking on all new and reconstructed state highways. As a result of this plan, many of Tennessee’s roadways are now safer and more accommodating to pedestrian travel.

If you or a loved one are injured in a Nashville pedestrian accident contact the experienced Nashville pedestrian accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates, get a free consultation and learn about your rights and remedies.