Over 3000 pedestrians die each year in motor vehicle traffic crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Past studies of these deaths looked at age and race. An article in last week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (see authors at the end of this page), reports on a study done that looked at pedestrian traffic deaths among residents, homeless persons and visitors in Clark County, Nevada, which includes the Las Vegas metropolitan area. This is a novel approach, and one that could provide new methods of pedestrian accident prevention. A “pedestrian” was defined as follows for this study:
The death of a nonoccupant (i.e., a person on foot, in a wheelchair, or on a skateboard) within 30 days of being struck by a motor vehicle in transit on a public trafficway in Clark County, Nevada.
The Findings
During the years analyzed for the study (2008-2011), 140 pedestrians died in traffic accidents in Clark County. Of those, 107 were residents, 19 were visitors and 14 were homeless persons. Looking at it statistically, per 100,000 people in the population, the pedestrian death rate from a motor vehicle crash was 1.4 for residents, 1.1 for visitors, and 30.7 for homeless persons. The locations of these fatal accidents is somewhat predictable: resident pedestrians, throughout the urban areas of the county; visitors, concentrated near the tourist area referred to as “The Strip” (Las Vegas Boulevard and Interstate 15); and homeless persons, concentrated in northeastern Las Vegas, the area of the city with the highest concentration of homeless people (the “Homeless Corridor”). A large percentage of resident and homeless pedestrian deaths occurred from 6 p.m. to midnight: (41.1% residents and 78.6% homeless). With visitors, midnight to 5:59 a.m. was the peak time (36.8% of deaths). The study also looked at the blood alcohol concentration(BAC) of the pedestrians who died, and 32.0% of them had a BAC greater than 0.08 g/dL (above the legal limit for driving in most states): 26.4% residents, 64.3% homeless persons, and 35.3% visitors.
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Source: “Pedestrian Traffic Deaths Among Residents, Visitors, and Homeless Persons — Clark County, Nevada, 2008–2011” (authors listed below), Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, July 18, 2014/63(28);597-602. Authors of the MMWR article, “Pedestrian Traffic Deaths Among Residents, Visitors, and Homeless Persons — Clark County, Nevada, 2008–2011”: Kaci L. Hickox, MSN, MPH1,2, Nancy Williams, MD2, Laurie F. Beck, MPH3, Tom Coleman, MD2, John Fudenberg 4, Byron Robinson, PhD5, John Middaugh, MD2 (1 – EIS officer, CDC; 2 – Southern Nevada Health District; 3 – Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; 4 – Clark County, Nevada Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner; 5 – Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, CDC ).