People Over Age 60 Suffer Markedly Higher Rate Of Pedestrian Fatalities

By John Voket

Older pedestrians are far more likely to be killed in Fairfield County while walking than their younger neighbors, according to a new study by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. And across Connecticut, the campaign reports that individuals aged 65 years or older suffered an average pedestrian death rate 175 percent higher than residents under age 65.

One of the three most recent pedestrian fatalities in Newtown involved a victim in that age range, according to the agency. In October 1998, Wolcott Toll, 78 of Hawleyville was killed in front of Edmond Town Hall after exiting a movie show and being struck by a motorist traveling on Main Street.

More recently, on November 18, 2002, Cecilia Koester, 50, of Bouse, Ariz., stopped to assist another motorist whose vehicle broke down on the Exit 10 ramp along Interstate 84 when she was struck by another vehicle and killed.

And on January 14, 2010, Kenneth C. Bailin, 51, of Ridgefield died as a result of injuries he received after he was struck on Hawleyville Road by a passing vehicle. Mr Bailin was tending to a load in the back of his pickup truck at the time, but he was classified as a pedestrian in local police reports because he was outside his car at the time of the crash.

Connecticut was also in the national spotlight in June 2008, when a traffic camera recorded a Hartford hit-and-run crash involving 78-year-old Angel Torres. Mr Torres eventually died from complications from the injuries he sustained, but that incident spawned a viral Internet video that showed numerous witnesses walking past the injured man seemingly oblivious to him lying in the middle of Park Street.

Between 2000 and 2009, 79 pedestrians were killed in Fairfield County — the second deadliest county in the state with nearly 14 percent of fatalities occurring among pedestrians. And between 2007 and 2009, 33 pedestrians aged 60 years and older were killed on Connecticut roads.

Though comprising almost 19 percent of the state’s population, people aged 60 and older accounted for 35 percent of the total pedestrian fatalities during that three-year period. Those aged 75 years and older represent just 6.9 percent of the Connecticut’s population, but 18 percent of pedestrian deaths.

“These are sobering statistics that point to a need for greater investment in pedestrian safety,” said Kate Slevin, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s executive director.

Connecticut’s older pedestrian fatality rate decreased since the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s previous analysis (which was released in May 2010 and looked at pedestrian fatalities from 2006 to 2008). While this is an encouraging trend, older Connecticut residents are still more likely than younger residents to be fatally injured in a traffic collision.

Nationwide, pedestrian collisions are a leading cause of unintentional injury death for people aged 60 and older. And pedestrian fatality rates for older Americans are more than 1.5 times higher than for those under 60 years.

But the disparities in Connecticut are even greater, with pedestrian fatality rates for people over 60 years higher than 2.3 times the rate for those younger than 60 years. People 75 years and older suffer a fatality rate that is more than 3.1 times that of their younger neighbors.

“We are deeply concerned that the fatality rate for Connecticut pedestrians aged 60 years or more is almost 2.5 times higher than for those under 60,” Brenda Kelley, AARP Connecticut state director stated. “Although our state is home to a large number of compact and walkable communities, all too often, senior pedestrians must travel along wide roads with high speed limits and few crosswalks. AARP strongly supports roadway safety improvements which will save lives and further enhance the livability of our communities.”

The campaign’s analysis found that Bridgeport was the most dangerous place in Connecticut for older people to walk, as measured by the percentage of pedestrian fatalities 60 years and older, and excluding cities with fewer than three total pedestrian fatalities during the period. Waterbury and Norwalk were ranked close behind.

While the campaign applauded recent efforts by ConnDOT to improve pedestrian safety, including making more funds available for pedestrian safety projects and recent efforts to make inexpensive, quick, targeted interventions, it also urged the agency to continue and expand on these measures.

For example, ConnDOT could designate at least tenpercent of certain federal transportation funds — such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality — for programs that prevent traffic injuries and fatalities.

“ConnDOT has taken some good steps to make walking safer, but more will be needed as the state’s population continues to age,” said Ryan Lynch, senior planner for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “We need to build and retrofit our roads so they are safe for people of all ages and abilities.”

Tri-State staff analyst Renata Silberblatt conducted the campaign’s analysis using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the US Bureau of the Census to examine fatality rates by age and gender for each county in New Jersey, downstate New York, and Connecticut.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is a nonprofit organization working toward a more balanced, transit-friendly and equitable transportation system in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The agency’s latest report states that between 2000 to 2009, 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States, the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month.

The full report, as well as county fact sheets and maps showing the locations of pedestrian fatalities throughout the region, can be found at www.tstc.org.