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.

Intersection Safety Saves Lives

If you ask most people to define an intersection they will tell you it’s a place where two or more roads or streets come together. In reality, it’s far more complicated than that. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration an intersection is a planned point of conflict in the roadway system. With different crossing and entering movements by both drivers and pedestrians, an intersection is one of the most complex traffic situations that motorists encounter.

Dangers are compounded when we add the element of speeding motorists who disregard traffic controls. Despite improved intersection design and more sophisticated applications of traffic engineering measures, the annual toll of human loss due to motor vehicle crashes has not substantially changed in more than 25 years. In 2008, there were 37,261 fatalities on our Nation’s roadways. Of these, 7,772 (20.8% of total fatalities) were intersection or intersection related.

The rules in Tennessee for intersections include issues such as the right-of-way, pedestrians, right turns, left turns and turn signals. Intersections include:

• Cross streets,

• Side streets,

• Driveways,

• Shopping center or parking lot entrances.

If you have read my blog in the past you know that I often refer to the concept of “traffic checks” which is the practice of looking frequently and carefully for vehicle traffic approaching from each direction. “Traffic checks” are especially important when merging or changing lanes and when approaching and crossing intersections. Below are five things to remember to navigate an intersection safely:

1. Look both ways as you near an intersection. Before you enter an intersection, continue checking traffic from both the left and right for approaching vehicles and/or crossing pedestrians. Look first to the left to make sure cross traffic is yielding the right-of-way. Then look for traffic from the right. If stopped, look both left and right just before you start moving. Look across the intersection before you start to move to make sure the path is clear through the intersection.

2. Watch your speed and be prepared to brake or stop unexpectedly at intersections if your traffic checks alert you to a possible hazard. You should slow down before reaching the intersection, drive at your slowest speed just before entering the intersection and gradually increase your speed as you cross the intersection.

3. You should be in the proper lane for the direction you intend to travel before you reach the intersection. Do not make last minute lane changes as you start through an intersection. Do not pass a vehicle in an intersection.

4. Do not move into an intersection and block it after the traffic lights have changed. This is not only common sense, but it’s also illegal to block an intersection after the light has changed.

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney I often recommend to my clients and blog readers to make the effort to contact the Department of Safety and review the Rules of the Road. If you or a loved one is injured in an intersection automobile accident, call our experienced Nashville accident attorneys and find out about your rights and remedies.

Nashville is now officially the 2nd least pedestrian friendly city in the U.S.A., and there’s nothing funny about it. Annually more than 4500 pedestrians are killed and more than 70,000 injured. It’s not always the fault of the driver – but often enough the driver shares at least some of the blame.  Children are at the greatest risk, but anyone can be a victim when drivers are inattentive. The most common circumstances for pedestrian injuries are:  people/children crossing the street in mid-block, vehicles turning into the path of someone who is crossing the street, a pedestrian stepping into the street from behind a parked vehicle, and vehicles backing up without looking.