Pedestrian Safety: News Roundup Continues, How bad can driver distractions be?

Let us continue with the pedestrian-car-truck-bus-train collision news items. As I previously stated, there are so many of them just since the first of the year. And my mailbox is filling up again with more. Is there no end to the number of pedestrians that can get injured or killed by cars, trucks, motorcycles, busses, trains and trolleys? Today we’ll look at one additional news item that provides a theme or reason (cause) as to why pedestrians get struck so much.  By analyzing how pedestrians get into accidents with motor vehicles maybe we can avoid finding ourselves in this situation.

Brooklyn, New York – February 2009 – Vans can be a higher type of vehicle sitting high off of the ground. Radios play loud and drivers have so many distractions available to them that the incomprehensible can actually happen. That’s an important fact to know in comprehending this news item. Trust me when I say this. From NYC Manhattan, Uptown. Downtown and all around there are pedestrian collisions happening, in just about every city in America. This one is from Manhattan and it brings you 17 miles of unexplained driving in a mental fog:

“According to the New York Police Department, a pedestrian crossing a street in Corona, Queens early Wednesday instead wound up being struck by two vehicles and his body being dragged an astounding 17 miles to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

At approximately 6 a.m., the man, who has not yet been identified, was struck by an SUV near Shea Stadium when attempting to cross 108th Street. Just seconds later, a dark colored van drove over the man, his body getting lodged in the vehicle’s undercarriage. According to investigators, the driver of the second vehicle was apparently oblivious to what he struck and carried on driving for 17 miles to Brooklyn until a passerby was finally able to call his attention to the man’s body.

In surveillance video obtained exclusively by PIX News, a man is seen exiting a vehicle that dropped him off on 108th Street, just before 6:09 a.m. The man is seen properly observing pedestrian safety rules as he crosses 50th Avenue. Soon after, a second man appears in the video and he is struck by the SUV. The first pedestrian, a witness to the accident, can be seen grabbing his head with his hands in disbelief. Police were called immediately afterwards.”

There is really nothing I can say about this one? But here is a video, which I would advise not watching if you’re at all upset by these types of collisions.