Central Florida ranks as the most dangerous metropolitan region for walkers over the 10-year period of 2003 to 2012, with the state of Florida taking first place in the nation, according to a new report released Tuesday by the National Complete Streets Coalition.
According to the release, 5,189 people were killed for simply crossing the street statewide, with 583 of those deaths taking place in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.
The report, titled "Dangerous by Design 2014," ranks how safe people are while walking in the major metropolitan areas by looking at the number of residents who walk to work and the pedestrians killed over a select time period.
This is referred to as the Pedestrian Danger Index. The report finds high PDI is a function of low walking rates and roads that are designed to move cars quickly. The top four deadliest major metropolitan areas in the country for pedestrians are in Florida: Central Florida, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Jacksonville and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale where, on average, less than 1.5 percent of residents commute to work on foot.
The report also looks at pedestrian death rate (per 100,000 people) for the past five years (2008-2012) by metro area and by county.
According to the report, the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metro area has the highest pedestrian death rate of 3.83 per 100,000 people. The Central Florida metro area is ranked eight out of the 20 metro areas in Florida, with a pedestrian death rate of 2.75 (per 100,000 people), just slightly above Florida at 2.83 and 1.56 nationwide. By county over the same period, Monroe County had the highest death rate with Orange listed at 13, Osceola 34, Lake 38 and Seminole 52 out of the 67 counties in Florida. When comparing the Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) of Central Florida to the Daytona Beach metro area, Central Florida ranked as the most dangerous, given the very few residents that walk to work (1.1 percent) compared with the number of pedestrian deaths.
In examining the pedestrian injuries and fatality data in Orange County and within the city limits of Orlando, on average, 37 pedestrians were killed and 500 were injured over a four-year period from 2010 to 2013. Orange County experienced a slight decrease in pedestrian deaths -- 38 to 36 -- in 2012 and 2013.
Of the 154 traffic crashes in 2012, 24 percent were pedestrian fatalities with the majority being male and on roads with a posted speed limit above 40 mph in Orange County. Injuries range from slight fractures to sever head trauma, according to Orlando Regional Medical Center's (ORMC) Level 1 Trauma Center. The data shows it’s the local residents, not visitors, who are being hit as pedestrians or are driving the cars involved. Of the 425 pedestrians admitted at the ORMC Level 1 Trauma Center, all but 76 resided in Central Florida in 2012.