School zone speed limits are set at 20 mph for a reason: If a vehicle hits a pedestrian at that speed, they’re likely to survive.
Driving 30 mph more than doubles the risk of serious injury or death to a pedestrian, and if you’re driving a pickup truck or large SUV the risk is even greater.
The U.S. Department of Transportation offers these startling figures on the risk of death to a pedestrian by a vehicle traveling at various speeds: 23 mph – 10%; 32 mph – 25%; 42 mph – 50%; 50 mph – 75%, and 58 mph – 90%.
Those are sobering statistics but ones to keep in mind as a new school year begins and those signs for school zones begin flashing again.
And an even more sobering fact: In 2023, a pedestrian died every 72 minutes on public roads in the United States. If you add in deaths in parking lots and private driveways, there’s a pedestrian death every 64 minutes.
Pedestrian deaths have risen sharply in the United States since 2013, even as rates declined in 27 other high-income countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which calls traffic fatalities a major public health problem.
The CDC and other traffic safety organizations cite several factors for the toll, including speed, taller and heavier vehicles with less visibility to the ground level where people are walking, alcohol, lack of sidewalks and lighting, and heavily traveled, multi-lane roadways that cut through urban retail areas.
“Every day, 18 people don’t return home after taking a walk. That’s unacceptable,” Jonathan Adkins, chief executive officer of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said in a March news release. “While recent incremental progress is welcome, it doesn’t disguise the fact that the numbers moved in the wrong direction over the past decade. The only acceptable number of traffic deaths is zero.”
He called for continued efforts to enforce traffic laws, improve infrastructure and encourage drivers and pedestrians to adhere to safe practices.
As one way to tackle the speed component, various traffic and pedestrian safety organizations have called for 20 mph speed limits in downtown areas where more people are on foot as well as in residential neighborhoods and near schools and parks.
But there also is the eternal conflict between motorists and walkers, especially in urban areas where roads are intended to move a high number of vehicles efficiently.
In 2021, 60% of pedestrian deaths occurred on “high-capacity urban roads that typically have posted speed limits of 45-55 miles per hour,” the CDC reported. Those roads have shops and restaurants – and so people are walking in the area.
Increasingly, motorists driving on those roads are in SUVs and pickup trucks, which are more deadly for walkers not just because of their size and weight but because of their height.
Research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report in late 2024 that showed a taller vehicle could cause significantly more damage to a human body. The findings were based on a study of 202 crashes.
It concluded that at a speed of 27 mph, the risk of moderate injuries was 60% and serious injury was 30% from a median-height car. A pickup with a front end 13 inches higher had an 83% chance of causing moderate injuries and a 62% chance of causing serious injuries.
“A small increase in crash speed can really ramp up the danger to a pedestrian,” IIHS President David Harkey said in a news article on the nonprofit organization’s website. “Our fondness for tall SUVs and pickups in the U.S. has intensified that effect.”
Add that to distracted walkers – yes, they’re joining distracted drivers – walkers and drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs, poor lighting and failure of both drivers and walkers to adhere to rules and it’s a tall order to bring those pedestrian fatality numbers down.
The National Safety Council offers these tips to pedestrians:
- Whenever possible, walk on the sidewalk; if no sidewalk is available, walk facing traffic;
- Follow the rules of the road, obeying all traffic signs and signals;
- Cross streets at crosswalks;
- If no crosswalk is available and your view is blocked, move to a place where you can see oncoming traffic;
- Look left, right and left again before crossing the street, making eye contact with drivers of oncoming vehicles to ensure they see you;
- Stay alert – avoid cell phone use and wearing earbuds;
- Avoid alcohol and drug impairment;
- Wear bright and/or reflective clothing, and use a flashlight at night;
- Watch for cars entering or exiting driveways or backing up in parking lots, and
- Children younger than 10 should cross the street with an adult.
And these tips to drivers:
- Obey all traffic laws, especially posted speed limits in school zones;
- Watch for pedestrians at all times and be extra cautious when backing up;
- Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, making eye contact to indicate that you see them;
- Never pass vehicles stopped at crosswalks;
- Stay alert and avoid distractions, and
- Do not drive under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
Researched and written by Sue McMillin