DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. — After Spectrum News shared the “Dangerous by Design” report about Central Florida being the most dangerous place in the country for pedestrians, a Daytona Beach Shores man reached out, wanting to share his story of nearly dying after being run over.

Dale Brooks was crossing Atlantic Avenue in November 2018 when a truck hit him in the crosswalk.  He almost didn’t survive, ending up in a week-long coma with broken bones and a punctured lung.

“I don’t even remember getting out of bed that day,” said Brooks.

His girlfriend Judy, crossing beside him, witnessed the whole thing.

“This truck literally came out of nowhere, and I said, ‘Dale, he’s not stopping,’ and Dale took one more step and it hit him totally on the right-hand side, and it yanked him right away from me, and the sound of that thud I’ll never forget,” said Judy Boyle.

She said the impact was so hard, he dented the truck and his shoe ended up a 100 feet away.

“He was gurgling, I didn’t think he was going to live,” Boyle said.

That's why Dale was not surprised to hear 5,433 pedestrians were killed in Florida from 2008 to 2017 after being hit by cars, the highest rate in the country, according to the report.

Of those crashes, 212 of those were in the Deltona, Daytona Beach, and Ormond Beach metro area. It comes in second behind the Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford area — which ranks first in the country — and right before the Palm Bay, Melbourne, Titusville area, which ranks third.

“It’s an enormous amount of people, and I just thought it was ridiculous,” said Brooks.

In his case, he doesn’t blame the driver so much as the design of the crosswalks. He believes a simple fix could have saved him from getting hit.

“The driver said he didn’t see me, but had there been a flashing light, I am sure he would have seen it and stopped,” said Brooks.

He believes it could have saved other pedestrians in Volusia from losing their lives.

“I am not saying it's going to save all the lives, but I’d say it would save 90 percent of those hundreds of people that have been killed in the last few years,” Brooks said.

While the Shores does have a few signs like that already, they have money set aside for at least two more for the next budget year, which starts on October 1.