Safe Speed Forums

I was going to put this in "Chat". But it more to do with SSDL.


It in German as from a Swiss paper. I summarise what it say under each paragraph.

I think there room to discuss WHY this ist the case und how we might improve things here.


It seems pedestrian deaths - especially those on ZEBRA CROSSINGS are the second worst in Europe - with the UK in bottom place in Europe


Swiss pedestrian deaths are above the EU average


In 2006 - every fifth Swiss was knocked down by a car/tram/cyclist...Average in Europe ist 14.6%. Siwss has 20.5% whilst UK has 21.3% by comparison. (Of course one third of all Swiss allegedly smoke pot per the "Yes to legalise drugs campaign - referendum on Sunday)



It seems that 5.4% of all pedestrian deaths occur of ZEBRA CROSSINGS or other "deemed safe crossing points"






Swiss above the European average of "killed on pedestrian crossings" Swiss say that they need to investigate why this the case und DO something about it...

But apart from more teaching of Green Cross Code etc ..und instilling COAST values in every driver as a constant NAGGING - what else should we be doing?

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That, taken on its own, is a pretty meaningless statistic and hardly one to get concerned about. If pedestrians are urged to cross the road at specific places it is hardly surprising that the accident statistics are skewed towards those places.

What does concern and surprise me is the number of people "knocked down" by vehicles per annum - 12,000,000 in the UK alone. Anecdoteley that figure seems ludicrously high. In my family of four for example, none of have been knocked down in fifteen years, far short of the twelve events expected. I wonder what the exact definition of "knocked down" is?

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This just CANNOT be correct if understood as written. It's possibly believable that 20% of vehicular related accidents involve pedestrians.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Yes, it's a mix up in the translation:



That doesn't mean "in 2006 - every fifth Swiss was knocked down by a car/tram/cyclist"! Such a nation would be wiped out by Darwin's Law in a few years. It means that, of all Swiss killed on the roads, 20% were pedestrians.

PS: It also says that only us in Britain are worse than that.

PPS:



The 5.4 % figure relates to all traffic deaths, not pedestrian ones. So it's 5.4 % of 100%, not 5.4% of 20% of 100%.
So it's worse than it looks.

What my wife should have written was that out of the 370 fatalites in 2006 . every fifth one was a pedestrian.


She was in a hurry as she had to get the foster child to school on time (or we get done for "truancy" ) and then onto work on the clearance of the roadworks jams on her route south. She will be more lab based and sometimes working from home as the pregnancy develops to term. Err... it's mixed emotions as we are expecting twins. We are both only just recovering from the shock of it all - and our normal opimistic outlook on life is now returning to its more better humoured normal.

Swiss press - like UK press - do go for the catchy headlines all the same. But we have to that EU and EFTA countries are just as accident prone.


.



They are saying that the Swiss compare unfavourably with the rest of Europe given that Swiss overall pedestrian stats are at the 20% mark compared with the average of 14.6% across Europe. UK is below them at 21.3% per its returns to the stat offices



As an Englishborn gent who learned German so as to understand what his wife was saying to the kids... (they would play us against each other in discipilnary mode - so I learned German to Advanced Level with the Goethe Institut. It does not make me "fluent" - but I do understand what I read and hear more or less). I have tried to show how Wildy summarised this by showing what key words mean in the brackets.)

This bit is saying that Switzerland has a high share of the number of fatally unlucky pedestrians of whom 5.4% of the total apparently died at a crossing.


Now in Switzerland - they do cross roads at such designated points - as they may get done for jaywalking So ... yes .. there may be some skewing given most will use these crossing points

But something seems to be going wrong here. Are people just stepping out because it is a crossing - or are drivers/cyclists not giving way or not seeing the pedestrians for some reason Are they asuming folk will slow for the cam in the wheely bin in the case of Switzerland? .. because a cam in a wheely bin can often be seen a couple of hundred yards away from some of these crossings and pinchpoints If you ever visit Zurich.. Lausanne.. Basel.. Lucerne.. Berne Geneva ... use eyes. We have. My God ... it was an enlightenment as to how a speed camera cannot EVER work nor can a draconian enforcement of 3 mph infringement across each speed limit be held to promote safety given the overall stats in a small country like Switzerland.. And let's be aware that the driving test as sat by their citizens is more "involved" than ours as well

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It could be a cultural thing.

Possible scenario:
Stubborn Swiss Pedestrian thinks "I have right of way on the crossing, so he can damn well slow down and stop"
Stubborn Swiss Driver thinks "Stupid idiot - shouldn't have stepped onto the crossing - I'll put him/her off doing it again"

SPLAT!

British Pedestrian thinks "After you"
British Driver thinks "No, after you!"

Well perhaps not the latter scenario, but you get my drift?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Or better at protecting other road users, or don't have as many cyclists, or cross the road more, or one of many other factors which could affect the balance.

It's a completely useless and meaningless statistic.