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Comment by lhorie | Hacker News Reader

> Pedestrian fatalities have increased by over 50% since 2010

It's a bit misleading to say that; you're not accounting for population growth, for one thing. According to https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/states/statespedestrians.aspx, the numbers are:

    year  killed  population      fatality rate (per 100,000 people)
    2010  4,302   309,322,000     1.39
    2019  6,205   328,240,000     1.89

So fatality rate did increase, but not by 50%. And in fact, it's down to 1.89 in 2019 from 1.95 in 2018, to give some context as to wiggle room. Also, the rate varies wildly by state (anywhere from 0.48 to 3.96)

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A surprising fact: about a third of all pedestrian deaths are drunk pedestrians.

https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/pedestrian_safety/i...

I'd really like to see a campaign about how it's not safe to walk home drunk. People should Uber home after drinking if at all possible.

Another interesting fact from the CDC: most pedestrians killed are crossing city streets, at night, and not at intersections.

This is also something we can improve with education -- we should inform people of the risks of jay walking at night, just as we've informed people about wearing safety belts and not driving drunk.

What responsibility do drivers have, in your opinion?

It depends on the circumstances, no?

If a drunk pedestrian stumbled into the street while you were driving at speed, and you struck and killed them -- I would not blame you.

If you were driving recklessly and killed someone in a crosswalk -- I would.

If the drunk person is visible you shouldn’t pass them at speed. It’s always your responsibility to drive safely and that includes driving at speeds that allow you to avoid running over a not overly committed suicidal pedestrian.

The speed limit on my steer is 20kph and jaywalking laws don’t seem to exist - if you see a pedestrian about to cross the street, you stop.

What if you don't see them because its the middle of the night and they're not at a crosswalk, a situation designed to have high visibility?

That's what speed limits and pedestrian crash tests are for. The US still doesn't mandate cars to be designed in ways that make hitting a pedestrian less lethal. A lot of American cars are not street-legal here for a good reason.

A recent story that made headlines was that one car maker (can't remember which) designed the front of the car to be so tall the car needs FORWARD LOOKING (!!!) cameras so that drivers can see kids (or people in wheelchairs) in front of the car. If you are designing cars and you need to add a forward camera to make it safe, you are most certainly in the wrong profession (and probably also a dangerous sadist who needs therapy or, most likely, mandatory commitment to an institution).

And, finally, IF you were driving within the speed limits, the street was inadequately lit and the pedestrian was intoxicated, you should probably get away with it if you manage to prove you are competent to drive a car (mandatory driving tests could be a thing here) and that you took all reasonable precaution not to hit the pedestrian.

Same responsibility. Don't drive yourself home drunk!

Ok, so it’s 35%. That’s still a fairly large number.

To put it in perspective, 6k deaths in a year are about two orders of magnitude lower than covid deaths in 2020. Heart disease similarly claims some 600k+ lives every year; its death rates swing by more than 4 deaths/100,000 YoY.

These are all preventable deaths, especially in a rich country like the US. We just need to look at similarly wealthy Western European countries and note how much lower their traffic fatalities are. This isn't some "necessary to do business" kind of thing or some debate between theory and practice; there are actual governments right now that avoid these deaths.

Americans pay a lot in taxes to support roads, which are taxes that Americans that don't drive see very little of (especially since most of the federal funding goes to match Interstate highway projects). If the carless need to pay into a system they receive minimal benefits from only to also experience much higher risk for injury and higher risks of death, while other wealthy developed governments do not have such problems, then it seems silly to continue on the track we're on now.

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