On the half-mile stretch of pavement, from 27th Avenue, just north of Bethany Home Road, six people were killed from 2010 to 2017. Four others were seriously injured, according to state Department of Transportation data. There’s no one reason that cars hit pedestrians. People may make a choice to step into a lane – one of the reasons is intoxication. Drivers may make a choice to look away from the road.

But interviews with safety experts and an Arizona Republic analysis of 12,000 pedestrian injuries and deaths chronicled in state collision data reveal two common factors. Both are as much about the design of the roads as the decisions of the people. Most pedestrians who are killed are hit when they cross outside a marked crosswalk, the area commonly referred to as “midblock.” And most pedestrian deaths happen on stretches of road designed to encourage higher speeds. Dozens of cities across the United States have begun redesigning their streets in response to surging pedestrian death rates in recent years, setting a target of zero roadway deaths. But in Arizona, there’s almost no commitment to that goal.

Smartphones, responsible for the death of thousands of pedestrians in the United States?

Nothing is safe yet, but the statistics are in any case formal. Since 2010, the number of Americans killed in accidents, mostly traffic, while they were just pedestrians, has increased dramatically. Four times more than the increase in the number of passengers or motorists who died in accidents.

The smartphone, responsible for the death of thousands of pedestrians?

All over the United States, road mortality continues to increase, although our country aims to “zero dead” on the road, especially with the arrival of autonomous and semi-autonomous cars.

The American authorities are in any case questioning the responsibility of smartphones in this slaughter. Attention, that it is not misunderstood, it is not envisaged here that the pedestrians are responsible for their own death, because they would watch their smartphone while walking, even if it is a proven risk of accident. The statistics are clear: more and more pedestrians are being hit by cars at night, on the road. Only one in five pedestrians involved in a traffic accident was at a crossroads, a junction, a pedestrian crossing.

Pedestrians mowed by motorists while looking at their phones

The association in charge of Road Safety in the United States decided to analyze all accidents that occurred in the US during the first six months of 2016, in order to analyze more precisely what is the cause this unprecedented increase in the number of dead pedestrians. The result of this study will be made public later this year.