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Florida Tops List For Pedestrian Deaths

By Eddie Farah

A 42-year-old St. Augustine, Florida woman was killed Friday night after authorities say she walked in front of a moving car.

Glenadine Harding was crossing Florida 207 when she was hit by a Honda sedan about 6:20 p.m. The driver was identified as Jill E. Scott, 55 of St. Augustine.

In a separate accident about an hour later, a man was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Friday night after he was hit by a car in Northwest Jacksonville at West Moncrief Road near Raines Avenue, waiting for the traffic to clear when he suddenly darted into traffic where he was hit.

Then on Tuesday, a pedestrian was struck and killed by an SUV at the rain-drenched intersection of North Main Street near 53^rd Street. The Times- Union reports the man's relative identified him as 51-year old James 'Jimbo' Hall who didn't have a car and walked everywhere he went.

Florida has four of the five most treacherous metropolitan areas for walking and is the most dangerous state in the U.S. for pedestrians.

That is the conclusion of the Pedestrian Danger Index, used when assessing the risk of walking in urban areas. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville, and their surrounding areas, were the top four hazardous cities, followed by Memphis. The top 10 is rounded out with Raleigh, Louisville, Houston, Birmingham and Atlanta.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, in 2005 there were 576 pedestrians killed in the state, nearly 8,000 crashes that injured pedestrians and 8,626 pedestrian crashes.

The milder weather of Florida weather encourages people to be outside at least nine months of the year in areas that seem to have automobile-oriented development and high-speed cars.

Nationwide 9,000 pedestrians were killed in collisions with cars in 2007 and 2008. At least 70,000 more were injured. Many of those killed were 15 or younger.

This sort of survey puts the burden on metropolitan planners to design communities where people can walk safely.

The safest metro cities that have taken strollers into consideration are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on November 14, 2009 (boomark / email).