Headlines have been blaring conclusions from a recent study that headphones are to blame for an increasing number of pedestrian accidents in Denver and throughout the country.
But our Denver pedestrian accident attorneys have taken a closer look at the statistics, which upon closer scrutiny, appear misleading.
It stems from research conducted by the University of Maryland Hospital for Children, which indicates that accidents involving pedestrians who wear headphones have tripled between 2004-2005 and 2010-2011.
That sounds alarming – until you consider that the social scientists are referring to an increase of 31 deaths by headphone-wearing pedestrians – nationally. While no death is insignificant and there are certainly measures pedestrians can take to make themselves safer, these figures don’t represent any sort of widespread trend.
In fact, pedestrian accidents in Denver and throughout Colorado and the U.S. are most often the fault of the driver. A recent, comprehensive study out of Boulder indicated that most fatal and injury-causing pedestrian accidents there happened at a crosswalk – where pedestrians were legally crossing the roadway.
Transportation for America, which advocates for safer streets across the country, recently published a blog criticizing the widely-published University of Maryland Statistics. That blog asserted that in the nine-year frame between 2000 and 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed after being struck by a vehicle. During that same time frame, the University of Maryland researchers uncovered 116 deaths where headphones worn by the pedestrian were a factor. That would account for 0.3 percent of all pedestrian deaths.
It’s utterly irresponsible to blame the victim in these cases because it doesn’t allow us to analyze the greater problem – which more frequently involves drivers who are distracted, impaired or speeding.
As blog writer Stephanie Lee Davis noted, spending our time focusing on this small aspect of pedestrian deaths is akin to encountering a person who has been mortally stabbed and frantically searching for a Band-Aid to patch up the scratch on his or her elbow.
As Davis goes on to point out, the whole issue of pedestrian fatalities is sometimes complex and layered. It involves streets and crosswalks that are often poorly designed by city planners, as well as drivers who don’t take their behind-the-wheel responsibilities seriously. Both of those require an experienced an attorney who can help you get the compensation you deserve.
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