EDITORIAL

Improving pedestrian safety

Posted 1/6/14

State traffic accident statistics tell both an encouraging story and highlight the need to do more to prevent incidents involving pedestrians.

In recent years, the numbers of traffic fatalities …

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EDITORIAL

Improving pedestrian safety

Posted

State traffic accident statistics tell both an encouraging story and highlight the need to do more to prevent incidents involving pedestrians.

In recent years, the numbers of traffic fatalities and serious injury accidents have declined. Fatalities average about 65 a year, and serious injury accidents average about 540. The numbers of people who die or are seriously injured in automobile accidents are down, although that is not the case for pedestrians.

Consistently, nine to 16 people die in pedestrian traffic accidents annually, and the stated effort of the State Traffic Plan is to “at least maintain” an average of 11 deaths for the fiscal year ending this June 30.

That’s not to say Department of Transportation officials – as well as others, including the attorney general – aren’t pursuing efforts to reduce pedestrian traffic accidents. DOT officials have visited classrooms and senior centers, reminding both young people and the elderly to use crosswalks and wait for traffic signals. Just as important, they also stress the need for pedestrians to check on traffic and not to assume motorists have seen them, know the law requiring them to stop or will abide by the law.

Attorney General Peter Kilmartin has taken the “It Can Wait” program to 21 high schools in the last year. While the focus of the presentation is on the dangers of texting and driving, the message of the consequences of “distracted driving” and what it can mean for pedestrians is compelling.

The injuries that can be caused in a pedestrian traffic accident have been brought home with the Dec. 10 incident in which John Lacki was attempting to cross West Shore Road to the Conimicut Post Office. The human body is no match for more than a ton of steel, plastic and glass, at any speed. Lacki was in the crosswalk when stuck and sent flying over the car. Both his legs were broken, and he remains hospitalized.

The accident was all the more noteworthy because the Conimicut Village Association recognized some motorists were habitually ignoring the crosswalk and had suggested painting the walk a different color could improve its visibility. It’s impossible to say whether that might have changed events on Dec. 10.

This is not the time to second-guess what could have been done to avoid Lacki’s injuries. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery.

This is the time to look at those places where there is the potential for pedestrians and motor vehicles to come in contact at established crosswalks, as well as those locations where pedestrians frequently cross without a crosswalk. Such a study may well recommend additional signage directed at both motorists and pedestrians; maybe more raised crosswalks; improved lighting and inroad signage that serves to slow motorists and reminds them of a crosswalk.

We can’t accept that pedestrian traffic accidents are simply a fact of life.

Comments

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  • davebarry109

    Bottom line is that pedestrians in Warwick need to look both ways TWICE. Warwick is not a pedestrian city. Motorists are not used to seeing pedestrians. Anyone crossing Warwick Ave or Post Rd at anything other than a corner is crazy.

    Tuesday, January 6, 2015 Report this

  • ronruggieri

    Please don't blame the pedestrian victim here: Crazy pedestrians or a brainless disregard for them ? I am a veteran walker in both Warwick and Cranston. When I lived on Church Ave. with my dear departed brother Ray, a radio technician for the Warwick Police, I was annoyed how frequently pedestrians at crosswalks were ignored or endangered even with a blinking WALK sign. In general Rhode Island is not pedestrian friendly. Ray Bradbury wrote a funny story " The Pedestrian " : In the future U.S.A. any walker is considered suspicious by the police. A man showing this " regressive tendency " is followed by a police car and questioned by a Robo-Cop. And I recall a cop car invariably in sight whenever I hiked up Church Ave. on my way to scenic Conimicut Point.

    There must be more crosswalks on major streets and intersections. And the cities are getting cheap on street lights. And drivers must be warned frequently to be alert for pedestrians -even those CRAZY ones . I recall one car that did stop for me at the Church Ave. crosswalk. The driver behind him vented his rage by blowing his horn. The Car is the modern Moloch !

    http://radicalrons.blogspot.com/

    Wednesday, January 7, 2015 Report this