Majority of Chicago Pedestrian Accidents Involve Teens:
Pedestrians were involved in 2,943 accidents with vehicles in Chicago, resulting in 32 pedestrian fatalities and 409 serious injuries, states the Illinois Department of Transportations provisional numbers of 2010. A troubling finding of a study commissioned by the Chicago Department of Transportation indicates that an average of two hit-and-run pedestrian crashes resulting in death or injury occur in Chicago every day! Hit -and runs account for 33 percent of vehicle-pedestrian collisions and 41 percent of those that are fatal-double the national average.
Most alarming was the spike seen in the number of teens involved in pedestrian-vehicle accidents. Pedestrians ages 15-18 represent the biggest segment of crash victims, the study found. Kiersten Grove, CDOT’s pedestrian safety coordinator stated in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that the large number of teenage pedestrian accident victims was “a surprise we didn’t expect, and it tells (the City of Chicago) that” improvement is needed in “the type of outreach we are doing to teens on pedestrian safety.”
Individual accident reports showed that young people are more likely than adults not to use crosswalks and that a large number of the crashes involving teens occurred on the West and South sides of Chicago, primarily in the Austin, Chicago Lawn and Auburn Gresham neighborhoods.
The South Chicago Accident Lawyers at Grazian and Volpe ask all pedestrians and parents of pedestrians to learn and obey all traffic laws and signals, and to educate children and teenagers to do the same. Children and teen-agers often think they are invincible and do not appreciate the dangers of motor vehicles. Our 25 years of experience as Chicago personal injury lawyers have taught us that personal injury is often avoidable where caution and obeisance to traffic signals and laws are observed. Please feel free to call us for additional information or visit us on our blog, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or WCIU, You and Me in the Morning for more information on how to protect your rights and safety.
