A new study emphasizes the idea that distracted driving continues to grow and endanger citizens across the country. This particular bit of research points to the increasing number of pedestrian strikes that can be attributable to a driver being distracted.
The research hails from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and can be found in in the latest edition of Public Health Reports. By compiling information available from the United States Fatality Analysis Reporting System, researchers were able to deduce just how many pedestrian accidents could have been caused by inattentiveness at the wheel between 2005 and 2010.
In 2010, the number of pedestrians who were struck and killed by a vehicle being piloted by a distracted driver was 500. This is an increase of 50% from 2005. Cyclist fatalities were also shown to increase. 73 persons were killed in 2010, up from the 56 that were killed five years before then. Interestingly, 83% of the cycling fatalities and 67% of the pedestrian deaths affected white men between the ages of 25 and 64.
The author of the study pointed out the pervasiveness of cellphone usage at the wheel is such that not a day goes by that he doesn’t see an individual on their phones while driving.
Although cellphones are perhaps the most obvious distraction, it does not appear that distinctions were made between this and other distracting activities when determining the cause of the accidents.