Via The Shaderoom,
The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) has released a new report showing that deaths resulting from being hit by a car while texting are the highest they’ve been in 33 years.
They report, “The number of pedestrian fatalities increased 27 percent from 2007 to 2016,” even though simultaneously, “all other traffic deaths decreased by 14 percent.” Pedestrian deaths are increasing overall having risen from 11 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2016. They now account for a larger proportion of traffic-related deaths since 1984.
Richard Retting, director of safety for Sam Schwartz Consulting and author of the GHSA report, told USA Today, “It’s downright disturbing; people outside cars are dying at levels we haven’t seen in 25 years.”
Rebecca Lindland, a Kelley Blue Book auto analyst, chops this phenomenon up to both pedestrians and drivers not taking enough responsibility.
“We’ve got distracted drivers and we’ve got distracted pedestrians, and that is a deadly combination,” she says. “At some point in time, people both behind the wheel and walking in the street have to take responsibility for their behavior and put down the phone.”
I think we all can do better by keeping our phones in our pockets while walking in these streets! They’ll still be there at the end of the day—we might not be.