Some people are dead wrong about pedestrian safety

Ken Griffin, Mohave Valley, Ariz.

Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011 | 2 a.m.

In reading about the many pedestrian accidents in Las Vegas, I am thinking about when I was in the U.S. Navy in New London, Conn., and used to spend weekends in New York City. There, it seems the vehicle has the right of way and pedestrians know this. Pedestrians make themselves more aware of vehicles in their vicinity before they step off the curb.

According to The New York Times, from 2002 to 2006, there were 7,000 pedestrian-vehicle accidents that resulted in injury or death. This is a city of 8 million people an average of 1,750 pedestrian-vehicle accidents per year. This is a percentage of 0.0002 percent. Very few people own a vehicle in New York City, so most residents are pedestrians. The 2010 population of Las Vegas was 1,951,269. I can’t find the number of pedestrian-vehicle accidents in 2010, but I’ll bet that the percentage was significantly higher.

I believe this is because pedestrians in Las Vegas think that because they have the right of way they can step in front of a vehicle and be safe because of this so-called “right.” Well, as my father used to say, “You can be right, dead right.”