Pedestrian risk

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 12

Pedestrian risk

A wet, dark night — no street lights, no moon, no stars. A single pedestrian hurries along the road. Suddenly the darkness is pierced by two headlights moving steadily towards him. The pedestrian is not concerned. He has seen and heard the approaching vehicle for quite some time and moved over to the side of the road. Yet his - knowledge and his display of caution don’t save him. The car closes in, there is a screech of brakes, an anguished cry, a resounding thump . ■ . and the rain beats down on more pedestrian fatality. Whv did it happen? The man saw the approaching car in plenty of time, he was being careful. What he did not appreciate of course, was that to a driver in a vehicle that is much larger, better lit and travelling faster than any pedestrian, a person walking along the road is not nearly as visible as he may think he is. An American study recently reported that while the average distance pedestrians thought they could be seen was 343 feet the true distance was only' 173 feet. In many cases and especially when it is raining, a motorist does not see a pedestrian until it is too late. Given the best brakes in. the world, a tjsr just does

not stop as quickly on a wet surface as when it is dry. Given the best eyes in the world, pedestrians in dark clothes in adverse weather are often virtually invisible to a driver. It is a combination of such factors that is the reason why pedestrians are about ten times more likely to be involved in an accident when walking on a dark wet night than when walking during the day. This startling figure illustrating the vulnerability of pedestrians was revealed in an analysis .made of ail pedestrian accidents in New Zealand. Two-thirds of pedestrian accidents happen during the day. This is to be expected. The most accident-prone pedestrians are the very young and the elderly, and normally neither of these groups are out on our streets in any large numbers after the sun has set. There are, of course, far fewer pedestrians of all ages on the roads at night. Also, there are fewer motor vehicles travelling then. Most traffic counts show only 20 per cent to 25 per cent of vehicle movement takes place at night. If we make the reasonable assumption that pedestrians also do only 20 per cent of their walking then (it is probably nearer 10 per cent), the chances of a pedestrian >

and vehicle coming in conflict at night ougnt to be only one twelfth of that in daylight. Yet in actual fact one third of the accidents involving pedestrians happen after dusk. This means that the risk for a pedestrian at night is four times as great as during the day. If any walking at night is dangerous, consider how much more dangerous it is to walk in the rain at night. Only one pedestrian accident out of about seven happens in the rain curing daylight. Assuming that it rains just as much at night as during the day, we would expect one pedestrian accident out of every seven at night to occur in the rain too. This would be only 4 per cent to 5 per cent of total pedestrian accidents. However, 11 per cent of all pedestrian accidents happen on wet nights — more than twice what would be expected. The significance of all these figures can best be summed up by saying that while there are more accidents during the day, there are also far more pedestrians. Those pedestrians who are out at night are four times more vulnerable but if it is raining they are some 10 times more likely to be in a road accident than during the day.