The number of pedestrians killed by hit-and-run drivers has jumped 20% since 2000 and is at its highest level in a decade, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The increase compounds the problems of investigating hit-and-run cases, which investigators say are among the most difficult crimes to solve because they often happen at night with no witnesses.
"Even if you're lucky enough to get the car, you can't always get the driver," says Richard Ashton of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Of the 4,881 pedestrians killed last year, 974 died in hit-and-runs, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records show. The total number of pedestrians killed nationwide increased by about 2% since 2000, but hit-and-run deaths increased at almost 10 times that pace, the USA TODAY analysis found.
"It's an outrageous statistic," says Peter Kissinger, CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. He says that although the increase is difficult to explain, likely factors include more cars sharing the road with more pedestrians, and increasingly distracted and aggressive drivers.
"I think it's a sad commentary on our society," Kissinger says.
It is statistics like that this that have made MoBikeFed become involved with the Traffic Justice Inititative and work to do what we can to address this problem in Missouri.
One reason we need you to join MoBikeFed today (or renew your membership) is that it is only by getting a critical mass of people from across the state to work together that we will be able to move forward our initiatives for better, safer roads, better laws, and a society that treats bicyclists and pedestrians as equal human beings.
