PEDESTRIAN CRASHES HAPPEN AT DIFFERENT TIMES FOR DIFFERENT GROUPS

December 22, 2015
dhdlaw

Tracking pedestrian accidents and the times they tend to happen can be fairly straightforward. For example, most of these crashes happen during “peak periods,” which occur in the morning and afternoon. They largely coincide with the times when people go to work or head home from work. At these times, there are the most cars on the road and greater numbers of pedestrians, so crashes are statistically more likely.

Fatal accidents, though, happen later in the day. They are most common after five, when most people get out of work, and before 11 at night. Contributing factors during this time include darkness, alcohol use, and higher traffic numbers than are seen in the middle of the day.

For kids, the greatest dangers are in the early summer, in May, June and July. It has been speculated that this is simply because children are out of school for these months, before returning in August or September. They are also more likely to be outside in the summer in Pennsylvania, when it is warmest.

For older pedestrians, daylight hours are actually the most dangerous. This is when the elderly are outside most often—seeing as how many of them are past retirement age—and so crashes are more common than the morning and evening, when they tend to be at home.

As you can see, different groups of people have their own risk factors and time periods when the dangers are highest, and it’s important to understand the role that these can play. At the same time, those who have been injured in all groups need to know their legal rights to compensation.

Source: Transportation.org, “Pedestrians,” accessed Dec. 22, 2015