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cross with the light.'

"Maybe he was particularly late that morning. Maybe it was his first time crossing like that. I don't know."

Dennis Hoar, of Damascus, whose Mazda Protege struck Ronald Resnick, doesn't know of any good solutions, either. The image of Resnick turning toward the windshield just before the car hit him haunts Hoar. Neither Hoar nor the driver in Mamo's death was charged.

"I never saw him coming," said Hoar, who was on his way to work as a government surveyor that morning. "I didn't even have a chance to brake."

Hoar said he was an Army combat engineer during the Vietnam War but never saw anyone being killed in front of him.

It's out of his way most of the time, he said, but he takes any route he can to avoid Georgia and Hewitt avenues.

                        © 2000 The Washington Post

Subject: pednet: Nobody Walks Anymore - IIHS
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000
From: "Peter Jacobsen" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Here's yet another article from IIHS for PEDNET review. This article is significant enough to justify quoting fully. http://www.iihs.org/srpdfs/sr3509.pdf

They see the victim -- and hence the type of crash -- has changed since the 1970s. They find fewer kids being hit -- duh, parents don't let them out anymore. They find that half of pedestrians deaths were their own damn fault -- quelle b.s. since that includes children, who are typically "at fault" from a motorist's point-of-view.

They also summarize data with percents, which hides the real trends.

My gripes aside, it's interesting reading.

Peter Jacobsen

Types of pedestrian crashes have changed since the 1970s

There should be widespread implementation of measures to reduce conflicts between turning vehicles and pedestrians at urban intersections. This is the conclusion of a new study, sponsored by the Institute, that takes a fresh look at where and how pedestrians are being struck.

Pedestrians accounted for 13 percent of motor vehicle deaths in 1998. The problem is worst in urban areas, where 68 percent of pedestrian deaths occur. As big a problem as this is, it represents an improvement since 1976. Pedestrian deaths have declined 30 percent since then compared with a 5 percent decline in all other vehicle deaths.

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