In his writeup of the report, the Post’s Ashley Halsey III buys into Betkey’s narrative wholesale. Perhaps that’s not a surprise since the organization comprises state highway safety officials who have done little to even admit to, let alone address, their governments’ complicity in these pedestrian deaths. The press release also ignores the report’s recommendations that government do more to design safer roads. More get hit in downtown DC than elsewhere in the city, but walking is riskier in many of those other areas.
More pedestrians get hit every year in New York than in Miami, but it’s far more dangerous to be a pedestrian in Miami it’s just that so many more people are walking in New York. If more people are walking, the rate number of crashes may rise simply because of numbers, but the actual crash rate, any person’s chance of being hit or killed, is lower. Not only is that ridiculous, it’s misleading: even if more people walking has led to an increase, more people walking will lead to safer conditions generally. GHSA gave the Examiner a statement actually claiming that Michelle Obama’s initiatives to get more people outside walking and exercising could be a cause of the deaths.
#Obama countdown timers driver#
Even though it cites about the same number of anecdotal cases where the driver seemed to be at fault and where the pedestrian appeared responsible, the GHSA press release and quotes from GHSA’s chairman, Vernon Betkey, Jr., the head of Maryland’s Highway Safety Office, twists the report into a one-dimensional message blaming pedestrians for the crashes. The report (PDF) also evaluates a number of possible causes, including the rise in pedestrian travel, distracted driving, and distracted pedestrians. Unfortunately, a safety nonprofit and its chairman, Maryland’s highway safety head, chose to blame pedestrians for getting killed while downplaying other, equally important causes.Īccording to the report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, an association of the safety departments of the various US states and territories, the overall number of pedestrian fatalities increased by 0.6% in the first half of 2010, possibly halting a four-year decline in pedestrian crashes. Pedestrian fatalities stopped declining in early 2010. Photo by Transportation for America on Flickr.
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