Drivers need to be alert to all roadway users, such as pedestrians and animals who can present special problems. Anticipating these problems can help you to protect yourself and others.
What Problems Do Pedestrians Pose to Drivers?
Every year close to 5,600 pedestrians are killed and about 80,000 are injured in the United States. Intersections are the most common scene of collisions with pedestrians. Drivers who must concentrate on traffic, signs, signals, and other roadway users, often fail to check for pedestrians until the last moment, when it’s too late.
Pedestrians may be distracted and cross streets without looking both ways. Jaywalking, crossing without regard for traffic rules or signals, is a common pedestrian error. Pedestrians might cross at places other than intersections and in areas without sidewalks, pedestrians walk in the street posing an additional risk to drivers and themselves.
- Children
Children are at a disadvantage as pedestrians because they’re smaller and less visible to drivers. They are less capable than adults of judging when it’s safe to cross a street and less likely to fully understand the consequences of their misjudgment.
In many urban and suburban areas, children use the street as their playground. When playing on sidewalks, children tend to forget traffic and dart into the street often between cars.
- Adults
Adults commonly jaywalk assuming not only that drivers will see them, but that the drivers will always give them the right of way. Making these two assumptions can prove fatal.
How Can You Avoid Collisions with Pedestrians?
The SIPDE process is essential to drivers in avoiding and preventing collisions with pedestrians. Scan the roadway and sides of the road continuously as you drive watching for children on or near the roadway. Look for clues that children may be present such as toys in the front yard, playgrounds, and school crossing signs which indicate that children may be nearby.
In residential areas, reduce speed and drive as far away from the curb or parked cars as you safely can. Use ground viewing, which means scanning beneath parked vehicles for any sign of movement.
Pedestrians to watch for are the elderly, the physically challenged, joggers, pedestrians with strollers, and people on the job such as mail carriers, and Driver Ed cars.
Exercise special care at intersections, particularly when you’re making a turn. Be alert for adults and children when backing up making certain there is no one behind or next to your car.
Never assume a pedestrian sees your car as a preoccupied pedestrian may not notice you. Always be ready to take evasive action. To warn a pedestrian of your approach, tap your horn. Always yield pedestrians the right of way, even if the pedestrian is crossing illegally.
What Responsibilities Do Pedestrians Have?
Like drivers, pedestrians must pay attention to rules, signals, and signs. Pedestrians must learn to judge gaps in traffic, and cross streets only when and where it is safe and legal to do so.
- Never assume a driver will see you and stop.
- Cross only at intersections.
- Cross only when a pedestrian signal shows a walk symbol.
- Do not step off the curb waiting for the light to change.
- Pause before crossing to look and listen for approaching traffic.
- When walking on or near a roadway, walk facing traffic.
- When walking or jogging on or near a roadway, wear reflective clothing, especially when visibility is reduced.
- Do not wear headphones when walking or jogging.
- When walking with young children, always take them by the hand when crossing streets.
How Can Drivers Avoid Collisions with Animals?
The dangers posed by animals on the roadway should not be taken lightly. The problems of animals on the roadway is particularly severe during the hours between sunset and sunrise, when light conditions limit visibility.
- Small Animals
Small animals cause a surprising number of collisions. In trying to avoid the animal, the driver might swerve and strike another vehicle or a fixed object along the road or the driver might slam on the brakes and be struck in the rear by the car behind.
- Large Animals
Hitting a large animal can prove fatal for both the animal and the car’s occupants. Deer and elk are the large animals most often struck, but drivers have hit horses, cows, and other farm animals.
- Using SIPDE to Avoid Collisions with Animals
Whether you’re driving on city streets or along country roads using the SIPDE procedure will help you avoid collisions with animals. Be especially cautious when driving through farmland where you are likely to encounter deer or other animals along the road. Search for movement along the sides of the road. At night, search for reflection of your headlights off animals eyes.
What you decide to do if you encounter an animal will depend on the kind of road you’re traveling on, traffic conditions, and other factors. Be especially careful when driving at night and in fog. During dusk and dawn, deer and elk move around to feed and these are the times during the day when visibility is reduced.
If you do spot an animal on the road, slow down, and be prepared to stop. Leave as wide a safety margin as you can when driving around an animal. If you spot one animal assume that others are nearby.
If it appears impossible to avoid striking a large animal, brake firmly and steer to strike it at an angle. Let up on the brake pedal just before hitting the animal. This will cause the front of the car to rise and reduce the chance that the animal will come through the windshield.
“Open range” means the animals have a right to be on the road. Anyone killing livestock will have to pay the owner for the cost of the animal plus five years of babies that cow would have had.