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Published on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
in the Daytona Beach News-Journal
With some pedestrians acting irresponsibly and some motorists flouting traffic laws, Florida Highway Patrol officials say they expect pedestrian casualties will increase.
Since Sunday, there have been three accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians in Volusia County, two of them fatalities. Police reports indicate in each case pedestrians did not follow safety guidelines.
FHP spokeswoman Kim Miller said a disturbing trend has developed in the last few months with more pedestrian crashes occurring at crosswalks.
"Many of the accidents are the pedestrians' fault, but a lot of them are also the motorists' fault," Miller said Tuesday. "Pedestrians are taking a lot of risks and motorists are not paying attention."
Pedestrian deaths in Volusia County dropped slightly, from 20 in 2002 to 16 in 2003 -- 2004 figures are not yet available -- but Miller said she believes last year's pedestrian-related accidents will be higher.
In the three incidents that occurred Sunday and Monday, none of the pedestrians was at an intersection or using a crosswalk. One of them, a woman whose identification has not been released pending notification of family, was killed as she attempted to cross Interstate 95 near the U.S. 1 exit about 7 p.m. Sunday, police said.
The other fatality occurred Monday just after 6:30 p.m. when 78-year-old Mamie Washington Armstrong of Daytona Beach tried to cross Nova Road just south of its intersection with Ridgecrest Drive, investigators said.
While police and advocates for pedestrian safety discourage walking on the interstate or in the middle of the highway, Jean Parlow, the bicycle and walking coordinator for Volusia County's Metropolitan Planning Organization, said police need to enforce traffic laws more strictly for both motorists and pedestrians.
Parlow also said many crosswalks in the county need to be refurbished so they can be clearly seen by motorists.
"This year has been a bad year for sure," Parlow said.
While Parlow said a motorist must always yield to a pedestrian on the road, that does not automatically mean a pedestrian has the right of way the moment he or she steps onto the road.
"Pedestrians must follow all traffic laws," she said. "But a pedestrian on an unmarked crosswalk has the same rights as a pedestrian on a marked crosswalk."
However, pedestrians are responsible for making themselves as visible as possible to motorists, Parlow said.
In a pedestrian accident early Monday in Edgewater, 26-year-old Hallie Ballard was struck by a motorist who did not see her attempting to cross U.S. 1, police said. The woman was dressed in black and the crash occurred just before sunup. She was taken to Halifax Medical Center.
Some pedestrians are getting hurt even when they are observing traffic laws, Miller said, simply because motorists are not paying attention.
"We have seen where many motorists are not looking both ways at intersections," Miller said. "They'll look to the left, and then go ahead and turn and they will not see the pedestrian standing on the right side."
With more pedestrians all over the country -- www.walkinginfo.org reports people took 35.3 billion walking trips in 2001 -- Parlow said the bottom line to safety is awareness on the part of both pedestrians and motorists.