Walking results in some accidents; as you try to cross the street, drivers who don’t pay attention could fail to slow or stop in time, causing a pedestrian accident, injury, or death. Each year, 100 or more people are either killed or seriously hurt in traffic violence incidents, and 800 people are hurt or killed while being struck by cars every year.
In San Francisco, you’re not immune to these dangers. In fact, 100 percent of all trips will result in you walking, at least when you’re starting or ending the trip. Even a short walk from your car into your home, from the car into a building, or across a parking lot can expose you to hazards such as other drivers. Around 25 percent of the trips you take in the city are less than a mile, which is an easy walking distance, but that distance still exposes you to the dangers of vehicles on the roads.
It’s a fact that 60 percent of all traffic deaths in San Francisco are pedestrian accidents involving those walking; that’s four times higher than the national average. On top of that, it’s the elderly most at risk, being five times more likely to be fatally or seriously hurt than younger people.
What’s most worrying is that over half the time, at 64 percent, drivers are the ones at fault for these accidents. Speed is often a factor. Unfortunately, the higher the speed of a vehicle, the lower the chance that a person will survive an accident; if a car is traveling at 40 mph, a person only has a 15 percent chance of survival.
Source: Walk San Francisco, “Walking Facts,” accessed Feb. 24, 2016
