Attorney
This spring, law enforcement will ticket pedestrians, bikers and drivers in DC who do not obey traffic laws. That is the purpose of the Street Smart campaign, aimed at raising awareness of the rise in pedestrian accidents in the DC area over the years. On average, a car hits a pedestrian three times every day in the District. So far this year, four of those car-pedestrian collisions have been fatal.
The Washington region includes Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland. Last year in the region, 83 pedestrians and cyclists died on the road. That was a nine percent increase from 2009. Just in bicycle-vehicle collisions alone, there were 436 such collisions last year in DC. A city official commented that the high figure is due in part to the 68 percent jump in bicyclists over the past three years. One injured cyclist commented that a collision with a vehicle is violent and jarring even at a slow speed.
Pedestrian-vehicle accidents are more likely to occur in downtown areas due to the large amount of walkers and bikers. In DC, the collisions occur most often at intersections even when pedestrians have the right-of-way. There is a greater chance for fatalities in rural areas because the cars travel at higher speeds before the collision.
According to the DC Department of Transportation, the Howard Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue intersection is the DC intersection with the most pedestrian-vehicle accidents (13).
Pedestrians are always on the losing end of a vehicle collision. Contact a Washington, D.C. personal injury lawyer at the personal injury law firm of Koonz, McKenney, Johnson & DePaolis if you suffer injuries in a pedestrian-vehicle accident. William Lightfoot is an experienced Washington, D.C. personal injury attorney who can help you pursue your claim.