Personal Injury Attorneys - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and the Bronx

In 2012 in New York City, there were 274 traffic deaths, the most in four years. In 2010, 11,000 pedestrians and 3,500 bicyclists were injured by motor vehicles in New York City. A study by doctors at NYU Langone Medical Center published in the current addition of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery shows that even sidewalk and signal-obeying crosswalk users are at risk. Six percent of pedestrians were injured while on a sidewalk. More of those injured on the street were injured while using a crosswalk with the signal (44%) compared with 23% who crossed midblock and 9% who crossed against the signal. Factors lowering the severity of injury include above-average body mass, bicycling vs. being a pedestrian, being struck by a taxi, and being struck in the crosswalk by a turning vehicle. More severe injuries were associated with alcohol, being less than 18 years of age, hearing impairment, and struck by a truck or bus.

Vehicle-pedestrian accidents injure 60,000 and kill 4,000 people every year in this country. Researchers watching1,102 Seattle pedestrians at 20 high-risk intersections during randomly assigned times found that nearly one in three people crossing the street at high-risk intersections was distracted by use of a mobile device. Only one in four followed the full safety routine of looking both ways, obeying the lights, and crossing at the appropriate point, the study found. Texting was particularly dangerous as texting pedestrians were 3.9 times more likely than undistracted pedestrians to display at least 1 unsafe crossing behavior (disobeying the lights, crossing mid-intersection, or failing to look both ways).  People texting also spent more time in the intersection, by 1.87 seconds, or 18%.

A study by Newsday of pedestrian accidents reports from 2005 through 2010 published in today’s paper finds that pedestrians are killed an average of more than five times a year on Hempstead Turnpike’s 16 miles through Nassau County, making it Long Island’s most dangerous road.  Thirty-two people were killed and at least 427 injured in 457 pedestrian accidents.  Three more people have died since last July.  Even crossing at intersections is not safe.  More than half of the incidents examined occurred at intersections.  Pedestrians were struck far more often by drivers turning left than turning right.  Seventy percent of the pedestrians killed were not at intersections.