Watch Your Step: NYC Pedestrian Injuries Remain High

NEW YORK, NY, July 05, 2012 (Press-News.org) Pedestrians who like to both send and receive text messages while walking down New York City streets are bound to suffer more serious injuries than others when a wayward vehicle or cyclist veers into their paths. Yet even smart pedestrians who keep their eyes fixed on the sidewalks and streets in front of them still face many risks.

Far too many events can suddenly unfold, distracting even the best drivers from driving defensively.
The following material summarizes some of the key risks NYC pedestrians face from both negligent drivers and cyclists.

Surprising Facts About Accidents Involving Pedestrians and Vehicles

Believe it or not, taxis, buses and trucks are not your biggest enemy when walking down the streets of this big city. In fact, private automobiles being maneuvered by distracted drivers pose the biggest threat of all. In addition, although roughly 57% of New York City vehicles are registered to men, male drivers wind up being responsible for about 80% of the city's accidents resulting in the death or injury of a pedestrian.

Other key facts:

- Speed plays far too big a role in many pedestrian-vehicle accidents. Too many drivers seem to forget that most of the city streets are governed by a speed limit of 30 miles per hour;

- Drivers making left-hand turns are especially dangerous. Pedestrians are strongly advised to "favor sidewalks to the right of moving traffic." In addition, "left-hand turns [are] three times as likely to cause a deadly crash as right - hand turns;"

- While many of us might expect intersections to pose special dangers, they actually account for three-fourths of all crashes with pedestrians;

- Although taxis and cabs seem to dominate most New York City streets at various times of the day, they actually only account for approximately 2% of the vehicles registered in the city. (As already noted above, private passenger cars cause 79% of the most serious crashes with pedestrians. Only thirteen percent of the accidents involve taxis or cabs and only three percent involve buses);

- About 40% of most pedestrian-vehicle accidents take place between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.;

- Every year, approximately 250 pedestrians lose their lives in accidents with vehicles in New York City;

- Given the high-volume of shoppers on the streets during the holidays, November and December are among the most dangerous months of all when it comes to pedestrian - vehicle accidents.
Pedestrian-Cyclist Accidents in New York City Boroughs

While the injuries suffered in pedestrian-cyclist accidents may not be as severe as some involving vehicles, they still cause considerable harm to many individuals. The following statistics provide a fairly accurate picture of where many of these New York City accidents often take place. (Most of the following data was derived from the Hunter College study entitled: Pedestrian-Cyclist Accidents in New York State: 2007-2010).

- Pedestrians are most likely to be injured or killed by cyclists in the following boroughs, starting with the parts of town where the most accidents occur: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island;

- Fifty-five percent of all New York State pedestrian-cyclist injuries occur right in New York City;
- Hispanics bear a disproportionate share of the injuries sustained in these types of accidents - as compared to their overall residency in New York City;

- The most dangerous zip code of all for pedestrian-cyclist accidents appears to be East Harlem's 10029;

- The Lower East Side zip code areas of 10002 and 10009 also account for an unusually large share of these types of accidents; and

- The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, zip code 11206, is also plagued by an oversized portion of New York City's pedestrian-cyclist accidents.

Hopefully, if more New York City pedestrians will find new paths around the city away from the most dangerous, heavily traveled areas and keep their cell phones turned off, far fewer serious injuries or deaths will occur in the future.

New York Pedestrian Accident Lawyers
Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, L.L.P.
122 E. 42nd Street, Suite 3800
New York, NY 10168
Telephone: 212-697-9280
www.nycaccident.com