Posted on: Sunday, May 29, 2005
By the numbers
| • | Where danger treads |
| • | New law stresses drivers' role in crosswalk safety |
| • | It can happen to anybody — and it does |
| • | Pedestrian fatalities in Hawai'i, 1996-2003 |
| • | Map: Serious pedestrian accidents |
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Advertiser Staff
Number killed or injured
From 1996 to 2003, more than 230 pedestrians were killed and 2,500 injured in Hawai'i traffic accidents, making the state's death rate the 15th-highest in the country.
For every pedestrian killed in Hawai'i, about nine others were hospitalized and as many as 80 were treated in emergency rooms.
Of those hospitalized, most suffered fractures (74 percent), bruises and superficial injuries (41 percent), internal injuries (37 percent) or traumatic brain injuries (36 percent).
Ages of those killed ranged from infancy to 94, but 60 percent were 65 or older, even though that age group represents only 11 percent of the state's population.
Thirty-nine percent of pedestrians killed were Japanese, followed by Filipinos (24 percent), Chinese (10 percent), Caucasians (9 percent), Hawaiians (7 percent), Koreans (7 percent) and Hispanics (5 percent).
The crashes occurred at all hours of the day, with two noticeable peaks — from 5:30 to 8:30 a.m. (29 percent) and from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (20 percent).
Alcohol was involved in about one-quarter of the accidents, but more often, it was the pedestrian (15 percent) who was drinking, not the driver (10 percent).
Drivers and pedestrians were about equally at fault in collisions. In more than half the cases (54 percent), pedestrian victims were in the roadway erroneously. About half the drivers made an error (often failure to yield, inattention or speeding).
Number hospitalized
Kinds of injuries
Victims likely to be elderly
Ethnicity of victims
When accidents happened
Effects of alcohol
Who's to blame for accidents
