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Pedestrian fatalities in Ohio on the increase

On Behalf of | Oct 16, 2019 | Motor Vehicle Accidents |

Over the past several years, many cities around the country have launched efforts designed to improve safety for pedestrians. These programs include things like adding or upgrading sidewalks, reducing speed limits on designated streets, adding speed bumps and more. It seems that Ohio may want to consider some efforts like this as the number of people on foot dying in vehicular crashes has been on the rise.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 85 pedestrian fatalities in Ohio in 2013 and 87 in 2014. This modest increase was followed by three more substantial ones first to 116 deaths in 2015 and then to 134 and 142 deaths in 2016 and 2016, respectively. Along with the sheer number of pedestrians being killed every year, foot traffic deaths have represented a greater percentage of overall traffic fatalities in the state. In 2013, pedestrian deaths accounted for 8.6% of all vehicular fatalities but in 2017, they accounted for 12%.

Cuyahoga County has also seen a jump in the number of pedestrians killed in recent years from three in 2014 to 21 in 2017. In the five years spanning 2013 to 2017, a total of 59 people on foot lost their lives in traffic accidents across the county. That is more than double the number of pedestrian deaths in the same time in any of Cuyahoga’s neighboring counties.

This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give residents in Ohio an overview of how the risk to pedestrians seems to be growing as the number of pedestrians killed in vehicular accidents has been on the rise in both the state and in Cuyahoga County.