Evan Cobb, Every day Herald file picture
Regulation enforcement examine a lethal auto-pedestrian collision on the intersection of Riverside Avenue and State Avenue that killed the pedestrian on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Provo. The male pedestrian was struck whereas within the crosswalk.
In 2021, 42,915 folks died in roadway crashes within the U.S., in response to the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security. Provo metropolis just isn’t immune from these statistics.
In August, two siblings in Provo had been hit and killed on their option to faculty. It was not solely devastating to the household, however to the neighborhood and neighborhood by which they lived.
On Sunday, BikeWalk Provo will be a part of almost 50 communities throughout the nation for the World Day of Remembrance for Street Visitors Victims.
Actions can be held at 3 p.m. at North Park, 500 West and 500 North. Among the many actions can be an announcement of the formation of a Utah Chapter for Households for Protected Streets.
The group’s intent is to induce authorities and company leaders to take significant motion to finish the present record-breaking roadway security disaster.
The variety of those that misplaced their lives in roadway crashes in 2021 is the very best variety of roadway deaths in 16 years, and a ten.5% improve from 2020. That is the biggest annual share improve within the historical past of the nation’s Fatality Evaluation Reporting System, which first began in 1975.
“Our mission at BikeWalk Provo is to advocate for road design and tradition that makes it protected, handy, and enjoyable for all folks to maneuver round by bike or foot,” stated Christine Frandsen, Govt Director of BikeWalk Provo. “This occasion will honor and assist victims and their households who’ve been injured or killed by vehicles in our personal neighborhood.”
For the previous a number of months the Provo Metropolis Council has been discussing the Protected Streets program and the way that may be built-in into Provo’s streets and sidewalks.
“We can not settle for site visitors violence as an inevitable aspect impact of transportation. We should design our streets and cities to be protected for all customers, particularly essentially the most susceptible amongst us,” Frandsen stated.
Drivers struck and killed an estimated 7,485 folks on foot in 2021 – essentially the most pedestrian deaths in a single 12 months in 4 a long time and a 12% improve from the earlier 12 months.
“We’ve been led to imagine that lots of of individuals dying every day on the roads is an inevitable value of contemporary society. Nevertheless it’s not true,” stated Leah Shahum, Govt Director of Imaginative and prescient Zero Community, a nationwide nonprofit selling protected mobility for all. “We wish folks to know the reality: Protected streets save lives. We now have the instruments and the know-how right this moment to forestall most roadway deaths and extreme accidents. We demand to know why our leaders will not be utilizing confirmed methods to finish this security disaster.”
These concerned with Sunday’s occasions are in search of assist from communities in a couple of areas:
- Designing roads & setting insurance policies for security over pace. That is potential by redesigning roadways, decreasing pace limits and leveraging security know-how.
- Making certain full streets. This contains protected highway use and entry for folks strolling, biking, driving and driving transit, and for folks of all ages and talents. A lot of the highway system within the U.S. is designed primarily for pace and makes an attempt to keep away from delays, not present protected mobility.
- Updating automobile design requirements to match security requirements elsewhere on the earth, with a give attention to including options to guard folks exterior of autos, akin to these strolling and bicycling.
Provo’s BikeWalk has a mission to advocate for road design and tradition that makes it protected, handy and enjoyable for all folks to maneuver round by bike or foot, Frandsen stated.
Publication
