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The USA is getting riskier for people on foot, and experts aren't sure why.
New data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that pedestrian fatalities rose 4.2% in 2010 over the previous year. The number of pedestrians injured in motor vehicle crashes soared 19%, to 70,000.
Experts are puzzled by the increase, which comes as road fatalities in most categories are dropping. The jump follows four straight years of falling pedestrian deaths, and a 14% decrease in pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009.
"Quite frankly, I don't know why they went up," says James Hedlund, a former NHTSA official who researched pedestrian safety in January for the Governors Highway Safety Association. "Nobody knows. As far as I can tell, nobody has studied the issue. The data (are) too new."
Possible explanations for the increase vary:
•Walkers are put at risk by the preponderance of wide, high-speed roads designed to move large numbers of vehicles but not with pedestrians in mind.
"What we have seen anecdotally around the country is that more people are walking, biking, trying to get to their destination by means other than a car," says David Goldberg, spokesman for Transportation for America, a safety advocacy coalition that reports annually on the deadliest cities for pedestrians (the three worst are all in Florida: Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Jacksonville).
For the full article, visit USA Today.
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