Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
Passenger
»
Another person walks / rides in front of AMTRAK train

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Transportation fatal and injury accidents have been trending downward since 1960. According to the 2010 edition of National Transportation Statistics, 7,210 pedestrians and 490 pedal cyclists were killed in highway related accidents in 1960.  In the same year 1,421 people lost their lives in railroad grade crossing incidents.  For 1980 the numbers were 8,070 pedestrians, 693 pedal cyclists, and 833 railroad grade incidents.  For 2000 the numbers were 4,763 pedestrians, 693 pedal cyclists, and 425 railroad grade incidents. In 2009, which is the latest year with good numbers, the numbers were 4,092 pedestrians, 630 pedal cyclists, and 249 railroad grade incidents. Only injuries incurred in railroad grade crossing incidents are available for 1960, when 3,367 people were injured at grade crossings. The first year showing injured persons for all three categories is 1990, when 104,805 pedestrians and 74,953 pedal cyclists were injured. During the same year 2,407 people were injured in railroad grade crossing incidents. In 2000 the numbers were 77,625 pedestrians, 51,160 pedal cyclists, and 1,219 rail road grade crossing incidents.  In 2009 the numbers were 59,000 pedestrians, 51,000 pedal cyclists, and 741 railroad grade crossing incidents.  In 2009 DOT began to round the numbers to the nearest thousandths.   These statistics were updated in April 2012. It takes the government approximately two to three years to gather the relevant data (just imagine all the reporting locations that they have to survey), confirm its authenticity through audits, put it into a valid data base, and analyze it. Whether this year is witnessing an abnormal number of transportation related fatalities and injuries will not be known until 2014 or thereafter. Nevertheless, although this year may see a spike in the numbers, the downward trend in fatal and serious injury transportation accidents is likely to continue.   If an injured person dies within a year of an accident, the statisticians assume that the death was related to the incident and move the incident to transportation related deaths, although it is quite possible that the injured person succumbed to other causes. Also, the numbers are taken from samples that are projected to the population. The actual population numbers will vary somewhat from the numbers shown above, but the federal government uses a fairly robust statistical sampling model, so the numbers are reasonable.     Most transportation related fatal incidents, as well as injury incidents, have declined significantly since 1960, as can be seen from the statistics discussed above. For example, between 1960 and 2009 pedestrian fatalities declined by approximately 34 per cent whilst the population grew 70.4 per cent as per the U.S. Census Bureau. I don't know the cause of the incident that is the subject of this thread. I am a bicyclist. I ride more than 5,000 miles per year. Riding a two wheel vehicle is different from driving a four wheel vehicle.   A cyclist must pay attention to other traffic, traffic signs, etc., just like a motorist. In addition, he must pay attention to road conditions. It only takes hitting an oil patch on a road once to drive this lesson home. Accordingly, someone riding a bicycle can be distracted by a road condition, loose his concentration, and miss an important traffic sign or momentarily lose perspective on his location. This may be hard to imagine. But I nearly rode into the side of a DART light rail train several years ago because of a distraction.  Again, I want to stress that I don't know what happened; I'll wait for the investigation to be completed.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag