When Walking From A to B is a Matter of Life and Death

Crosswalk Countdown: D.C. Department of Transportation expects to have all 1,550 crosswalks in the city to have a countdown at the start of 2009, in hopes to protect pedestrians.The man saw the oncoming headlights up the road to his left. He thought he could beat the van, but it was moving too fast.

It was 5 a.m. and was still dark. Jerome Ledoux, 49, of Columbia Heights was walking in the vicinity of the newly opened World War II Memorial when he was struck by a commercial van.

Four years later, Ledoux recalled diving to avoid the vehicle and having a tire roll on top of his left foot.

"I was lucky," Ledoux said. "How I did it, I don't know."

He was treated at the George Washington University Medical Center and released later that same day, still in pain.

An accident like Ledoux's is not uncommon within the District. Pedestrian fatalities reached a 13-year high in 2007 with 25 deaths out of 608 people who were struck, eight more than in 2006, according to findings concluded in August by the D.C. Department of Transportation.

The George Washington University Hospital emergency services treated 29 people who had been struck by a motor vehicle during September and October 2008. From January to July 2008, the hospital had treated four struck pedestrians.

The recent data overshadows the overall findings from the D.C. Department of Transportation of a steady decline in total vehicle collisions with pedestrians. There were 744 total in 2005, which dropped to 724 in 2006 and 608 in 2007, according to the D.C. Department of Transportation.

The numbers of fatalities may appear low compared to the number of accidents that occur, but more than 90 percent of people struck are injured—and injured bad.

"Injuries to the legs and head are most common," said Dr. Samir Fakhry, chief of trauma services at Fairfax Inova Hospital. "The pedestrian is no match for a vehicle weighing 3000 to 4000 pounds and moving at a high speed. Most pedestrians are thrown up in the air and end up flying through the air for a long distance."

Fakhry headed a 2006 study on vehicle collisions with pedestrians after noting an increase in pedestrian injuries at the hospital's trauma center. The DC Council of Governments funded the hospital's study.

Findings included:

- An average of 82 fatalities occur each year in the D.C. metro region from motor vehicles striking pedestrians.
(The year with the highest data was 1994 with 94 fatalities; the year with the lowest data
was 2004 with 65 fatalities).
- A pedestrian is killed in the D.C. metro area every 4.4 days.
- 5.6 pedestrians are injured in the D.C. metro area each day.

Fakhry said that speed is probably the most important factor in determining a victim's chances for survival.

"Once you get above 10 to 15 mph striking speed, the mortality rises dramatically," he said. "If someone is struck at highway speeds (50-60 mph) they are very likely to die."

Also in 2006, D.C. government implemented the Pedestrian Master Plan, a strategy to curb pedestrian fatalities through the "four E’s": engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement.

The District's pedestrian program coordinator George Branyan attributed collisions to ignorance of pedestrian law by both motorists and pedestrians.

Authorities from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department would agree with Branyan.

"Sometime it's the motorist's fault and sometimes, unfortunately, it's the pedestrian's fault," said Sgt. Kenny Bryson of D.C. police.

Many pedestrians have been found to walk when they have the red light, Bryson said.

Local government is partnering with D.C. police in stricter enforcement of traffic rules.

“It’s become very clear that the education message alone is very weak in changing behavior,” Branyan said.

The Department of Transportation is also focusing on street construction with their Great Streets program, building median islands at busy intersections, such as along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Southeast. Pedestrians can wait at these medians if they do not have enough time to cross, instead of being stuck in the middle of the street. Branyan said that continuous medians can reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians by 90 percent.

The department's project to install countdown crosswalk signals at all 1,550 intersections in the city is also nearly complete, and authorities say they are confident that it will save lives.

The crosswalk signals, which allow pedestrians to know how much time they have left to cross, is part of the local government’s efforts to protect the people who walk the city’s streets.

Ledoux said that he is now more cautious when walking in the city and voices concern for other pedestrians potentially at risk in his neighborhood.

"It's dangerous for the kids here," Ledoux said, sitting at the corner of 16th and Irving streets Northwest. "They need crosswalkers to help get them across."