Traffic Safety Facts 2001: Pedestrians

NHTSA · 1999 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This document, published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1999, presents statistical data on pedestrian traffic safety in the United States for the year 2001. The report addresses the magnitude of pedestrian fatalities and injuries, analyzing trends, demographic disparities, and contributing factors such as alcohol involvement. It serves as a public information fact sheet derived from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the General Estimates System, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of pedestrian crash outcomes to inform safety efforts. The analysis relies on national traffic crash data, utilizing a revised multiple imputation method introduced in 2001 to estimate missing blood alcohol concentration (BAC) values for individuals involved in fatal crashes. The report aggregates data on fatalities and injuries by age, sex, time of day, day of the week, location, and state. It compares 2001 figures with historical data from 1991 to identify trends and calculates fatality and injury rates per 100,000 population using Bureau of the Census projections. In 2001, 4,882 pedestrians were killed and 78,000 were injured in traffic crashes. Pedestrian fatalities decreased by 16 percent compared to 1991 levels. Most fatalities occurred in urban areas (69 percent), at nonintersection locations (79 percent), during normal weather conditions (90 percent), and at night (64 percent). Males accounted for 68 percent of pedestrian fatalities, with a fatality rate more than double that of females. Older pedestrians (ages 70+) had the highest death rate per 100,000 population, while children aged 5–9 represented the largest proportion of child traffic fatalities who were pedestrians. Alcohol involvement was reported in 47 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes; notably, 33 percent of the pedestrians were intoxicated (BAC ≥ 0.08 g/dl), compared to only 15 percent of the drivers. Forty-five percent of pedestrian fatalities among those under 16 occurred between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM, and nearly half of all pedestrian fatalities occurred on weekends. The findings highlight significant demographic and behavioral risk factors in pedestrian safety. The high prevalence of pedestrian intoxication relative to driver intoxication suggests that pedestrian behavior is a critical component of crash causation. The concentration of fatalities among older adults and young children, as well as the temporal clustering of crashes during evening hours and weekends, identifies specific high-risk groups and times. These statistics underscore the need for targeted safety interventions addressing visibility, alcohol use, and infrastructure in urban and nonintersection areas.

Key finding

In 2001, 4,882 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes, a 16 percent decrease from 1991, with male fatality rates more than double those of females and alcohol involvement reported in 47 percent of fatal crashes.

Methodology

dataset

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• fatality injury trends
• demographic disparities
• comparative international

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes