“Last year was the deadliest for pedestrians since 1990,” reports Governing magazine. Maybe; maybe not — the data for the entire year haven’t yet been published. Instead, it appears various interest groups are trying to gain publicity by being the first to report roadway safety news.
In this case, it is the Governors Highway Safety Association (which is really an association of state traffic safety agencies), which just issued a Pedestrian Traffic Safety Report. A couple of weeks ago it was the National Safety Council, which reported that 40,000 people were killed on roadways in 2018 for the third year in a row.
In fact, none of the 2018 numbers are certain because they are based on only the first six months of the year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which keeps the “official” data, probably won’t release final 2018 numbers until October. At least, that’s when it released 2017 numbers. It also released “preliminary” numbers for the first half of 2018 at about the same time. Continue reading
