Anywhere a car is being operated, there is the possibility that it could be involved in an accident. Sometimes those accidents involve other vehicles. In other situations, however, a vehicle might strike a pedestrian. In this type of accident, there is a great risk that the person struck will suffer serious injuries. Sometimes those injuries will be so serious that they will lead to death.
As it turns out, there is a correlation between the socioeconomic level of an area where a pedestrian accident occurs and the rate at which people die.
An analysis, conducted by Governing, on fatal pedestrian accidents based on information provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, found that these tragic incidents occur more frequently in poorer neighborhoods. The information that was analyzed was collected during a four year period beginning in 2008.
More specifically, the difference, which was characterized as disproportionate, finds low-income neighborhoods experienced a rate of fatal pedestrian accidents that was twice as many as those occurring in more affluent neighborhoods. In neighborhoods where more than a fourth of the population was considered to be living in poverty, the rate of deaths per 100,000 was 12.1.
Regardless of the financial situation of someone who has been injured or lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, the option to pursue justice in a civil court is a possibility. Because these cases often require gathering a lot of different types of evidence, they can be long and complicated. Nonetheless, when successful, financial damages recovered are usually of great assistance to those injured.
Source: Governing, “Pedestrian Deaths in Poorer Neighborhoods Report,” Mike Maciag, July 31, 2014