Report finds pedestrians usually at fault.
Pedestrians are at fault for the majority of road traffic accidents they are involved in, according to accident reports compiled by the police. Road safety consultant Road Safety Analysis analysed the contributory factors to accidents involving a pedestrian casualty recorded by police forces from 2006-2011. The research was commissioned by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) and funded by the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the Safer Roads Foundation.
The study found that pedestrian contributory factors were recorded by the police in 78% of collisions, with only 28% of collisions having any driver error attributed. The police can assign up to six factors to a collision.
A pedestrian failing to look before crossing was a contributory factor in 60% of incidents and in 25% of instances the pedestrian was recorded as being “careless, reckless, in a hurry”.
“This analysis appears to paint a poor picture of pedestrians in relation to their contributions to the collision with several contributory factors indicating actions that if displayed by a motorist would result in a prosecution,” say report authors Richard Owen and Tanya Fosdick. They add: “That said, the majority of failings are down to simple inattention or carelessness…”
