Pedestrian

 

According to IIHS – Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: “In 2014, 4,884 pedestrians were killed and approximately 65,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes on public roadways in the United States. Pedestrians comprised about 15 percent of crash deaths. It's likely that the true number of pedestrians injured in motor vehicles crashes in 2014 was greater than 65,000.”

 

Major causes

• ​Pedestrian is crossing the street in unassigned place

• Poor illumination prevents the driver to see the pedestrian in particular if he wears dark cloths

• Inattentive driver

• Pedestrian or driver do not correctly estimate the distance from each other (looming)

• Green signal to the pedestrian is not long enough

• Driver line of sight is obstructed (in particular in turns)

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Services FEI provides

• Determine the impact speed by measuring the damage to the vehicle

• Determine the impact speed by measuring the “Throw Distance”

• Determine other factors that contributed to the accident

 

FEI case examples

Pedestrian fatality

A pedestrian was crossing a street in the middle of the night when a vehicle, traveling at 35 mph, hit him and caused his death. Our investigation revealed: 1) The pedestrian crossed the street not in cross walk; 2) The illumination in the street was very poor and the driver could not see the pedestrian who was wearing dark cloths; 3) Considering the driver’s response time and the distance from which he could see the pedestrian the driver could not stop car in time. Thus, this accident was not avoidable and the pedestrian is the one responsible for it.