You likely cross one street or another every day. It’s equally likely that if you or a loved one has never been injured in a pedestrian accident, you’ve never considered how often people get injured or are killed when doing nothing more than crossing to street. At Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas, we’ve worked with pedestrian accident victims of all walks of life and are here to help you if you’ve been the victim of a pedestrian accident.
Pedestrian deaths are on the rise
In 2015, the most recent year that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has data, there were more than 5,300 people killed as pedestrians in auto accidents. This is an almost 10% increase compared to the 4,910 deaths of pedestrians in 2014. In fact, not since 1996 have this many people died in a pedestrian accident in the same year.
A pedestrian is killed every 1.6 hours
If you look at the stats, about once every 1.6 hours a pedestrian is killed. A pedestrian is injured in a traffic accident every 7.5 minutes. The most likely time that a pedestrian will be killed is between 6 PM to 9 PM. This is easy to understand, since these are the hours that people are both returning home from work, there is more traffic on the roads, and it’s starting to get darker out. In fact, 26% of people killed in a pedestrian accident will be struck between these hours.
Many traffic fatalities involve pedestrians
About 15% of all traffic fatalities are pedestrian deaths and more than 20% of children 14 years old or younger who were killed in traffic accidents were pedestrians. Interestingly, about 70% of those killed in traffic accidents as pedestrians were men. About 90% of the pedestrian accidents that involved a fatality involved just one vehicle.
Alcohol is a common component in pedestrian accidents
In almost half of the fatal pedestrian crashes that happened in 2015, alcohol was involved – either for the person driving or the person who was struck. Almost 20% of people killed in pedestrian accidents were killed in an accident in which the driver fled the scene. It’s likely that many of these hit and run drivers where under the influence of alcohol and did not want to face the consequences.
Have you been injured or lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident?
If you’ve been injured in a pedestrian, or a loved one has been killed in an accident, then we hope you’ll reach out to Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707. We offer free case evaluations during which we can get the facts of your case and explain your options. This is a difficult situation but we want to ensure that you get everything you’re entitled to.
We take cases on a contingency basis, which means you won’t have to pay us until you receive your award or settlement. In the event you don’t settle or win your case, you won’t owe us a penny. There is no risk so call us today at 909-982-0707 to get started.
