In 2012, 29 people were killed in car accidents in Fresno – and 14 of those were pedestrians.
That means just about half of all those killed in collisions in 2012 weren’t even in a car, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Earlier this month the NHTSA released the 2012 vehicle crash statistics for the nation’s largest cities. Fresno ranks as the 34th largest, but when it comes to pedestrians killed as percentage of total vehicle fatalities in the city, it tied San Francisco for second place at 48 percent. It was only topped by Denver at 50 percent.
Cities with larger metro areas had more deaths, but the numbers of pedestrians killed were lower percentage wise. For instance, in Chicago 145 people were killed in car accidents, but only 47 of those were pedestrians, a total of 32 percent.
The report also notes that California leads the pack with the highest number of pedestrian related deaths at 612 and is followed by Texas at 478 then Florida at 476.
In 2012, over 80,000 people were either injured or killed in a traffic collision in the United States. That means every two hours a pedestrian was killed and every seven minutes a pedestrian was injured in a car accident.
For more information on the data visit: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811888.pdf
