Seniors at risk for pedestrian crashes
Survey suggests older people are five times more likely to be killed
Seniors are five times more likely to be killed in pedestrian collisions than younger people, city statistics for 2009 to 2014 suggest.
Five of the six pedestrian fatalities this year were seniors.
Joan Carlson, 73, crosses 100th Street a couple of times a week to volunteer at the Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton on the corner of 102A Avenue. It’s not an easy task.
“You can’t get two steps off the curb without the light changing,” Carlson said. “I’m sure I could burn (mayor) Iveson’s ears off,” she added, referring to her annoyance with the rapidly changing lights.
The city is aware of the problem, said Gerry Shimko, executive director of the office of traffic safety. The city is looking into new methods to prevent collisions involving senior pedestrians, such as upgrading crosswalks and creating a strategy to educate seniors and drivers.
“We strongly advocate for shared responsibility, so both the driver and the pedestrian need to make sure they have eye contact,” Shimko said, adding that missed cues can result in collisions or fatalities. As the population ages, creating better pedestrian safety is a learning process for the city. Shimko said Edmonton is looking to pioneering cities such as Singapore, which has sensors at traffic lights where seniors can swipe a commuter card to extend the crossing time.
Shimko said that these improvements will also help the growing number of younger pedestrians.
Bruce Coben, a former associate professor at the Monash University Accident Research Centre in Australia, who this week spoke Wednesday at the seventh annual international conference on urban traffic safety in Edmonton, said around the world there is a high percentage of deaths and injuries involving pedestrians 65 years of age and older.
He has decades of experience in road safety and the creation of low-risk traffic environments for pedestrians. “We expect with the aging of the population it’ll become an increasingly important issue,” he said.
Frail health, as well as declining visual and mental sharpness, make seniors more vulnerable. The ability to make sound judgments when crossing a street are impaired with age, and seniors are less agile if they have to make a quick move to avoid an oncoming vehicle, he said. He suggested a lower speed limit in areas with a high concentrations of seniors, which already exists in some parts of Edmonton, and introducing raised intersections to help reduce speed and collision rates.
For Joan Carlson, the enforcement of any new policies is most important. “Fines are just the cost of driving a car,” she said, “If there’s nobody to enforce speed limits or bylaws, people just don’t pay attention.”