Georgia Injury Law Blog
A new report finds that there was a slight drop in the number of pedestrians killed in auto accidents during the first 6 months of last year. While any decrease in deaths from car accidents is welcome, the question remains what changes can be made to more greatly reduce the number of pedestrian accidents in which persons lose their lives.
The report which showed the slight drop in pedestrian wrongful deaths was released by the Governors Highway Safety Association and analyzed preliminary data from the first 6 months of 2023. There was some good news in the report. According to the data, there was a slight drop of 4% in the number of pedestrians killed in auto accidents between January and June of last year. Many states, including Georgia, saw significant drops in the number of car accident deaths involving pedestrians last year.
The rates of pedestrian accident deaths have shot up since the pandemic, and especially during the worst days of 2022 when the numbers skyrocketed to their highest numbers in over 40 years. Since then, transportation safety experts in Georgia and around the country have struggled with bringing these numbers under control. The challenge has been even greater now that there are more vehicles on the road as companies end their work -from -home policies and require employees to return to work. The larger number of vehicles on the roads translates into a greater risk of being hit by a car while walking, and especially so during challenging times like these, when pedestrians are already at risk from a number of other factors that increase their risks of being involved in car accidents like poor infrastructure.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association data, there were 1373 pedestrian deaths in auto accidents in the first half of 2023. That was a drop of over 150 deaths from the same period of time in 2022. However, it was also an increase of more than 14% over the same period of time in 2019. We have a long way to go in keeping pedestrians safe at the same rate as we were doing before the pandemic.
Georgia was one of the few states that reported double digit drops in the number of pedestrians being killed in car accidents. The state saw 167 pedestrian deaths in auto accidents in the first 6 months of 2022 and that number had dropped to 147 deaths in the first 6 months of last year. For perspective, however, the state recorded 109 pedestrian deaths in auto accidents in the first 6 months of 2019.
While the drop in car accident pedestrian deaths is encouraging, we need to see more efforts including updating of pedestrian-safe infrastructure and greater education about pedestrian rights to help prevent more such deaths every year.
The Atlanta auto accident Lawyers at Katz Personal Injury Lawyers are dedicated to the representation of persons who have suffered injuries in car accidents in the metro Atlanta region and across the state of Georgia. If you or a loved one have suffered injuries in a car accident, talk to a lawyer at our firm and discuss your legal options for a claim for damages. You may qualify for compensation that includes medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering and other types of damages.