Nationwide 'Epidemic' Of Pedestrian Deaths a Failure of Social Justice: Report
Published on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 by Common Dreams
Nationwide 'Epidemic' Of Pedestrian Deaths a Failure of Social Justice: Report
New study finds people of color, the old and young dying in disproportionate numbers due to poor social policies
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
An "epidemic" of pedestrian fatalities and injuries is sweeping the United States, hitting people of color, children, and older adults the hardest. According to a new report (pdf), these are not inevitable "accidents," but rather, preventable tragedies that stem from poor social policies.
Entitled Dangerous By Design 2014, the study was released Tuesday by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America. Stefanie Seskin, Deputy Director of NCSC, told Common Dreams that the deaths and injuries the report catalogs are "social justice" issues. "Right now we are forcing people of color, older adults, and children to bear the epidemic of fatalities," she said.
Between 2003 and 2012, one pedestrian in the U.S. was hit by a car every 8 minutes on average. Of those hit, 47,025 were killed—16 times the number of people killed in natural disasters during the same period—and 676,000 were injured.
Fatality rates for those on foot appear to be growing, the report finds. Pedestrian deaths as a proportion of overall traffic deaths have risen since 2009, and in 2012, pedestrians accounted for almost 15 percent of all traffic fatalities in the country.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/20-3
= new reply since forum marked as read
