Study shows suburbs with most car-pedestrian accidents

The Chicago-based Active Transport Alliance released a study showing the suburbs that had the highest rate of car-pedestrian accidents for the years 2004-07.  In 2007, there were 6,000 pedestrians hit by cars in crosswalks, leading to 170 deaths.  The ten suburbs that had the highest rate of car-pedestrian accidents were:

1.  Hopkins Park (4.22 per 1,000 residents)
2.  Oakbrook Terrace (1.31)
3.  Harvey (1.12)
4.  Markham (1.03)
5.  Countryside (1.00)
6.  Oak Park (0.96)
7.  Rosemont (0.95)
8.  Summit (0.94)
9.  Calumet Park (0.94)
10.  Midlothian (0.91)

Some of the reasons the reasons that the authors found were causes of Chicago area pedestrian-auto accidents were: busy arterial roads, absent or poorly marked crosswalks, absence of sidewalks, and lax law enforcement.  Many of the suburbs with the highest rates of accidents were lower income communities, leading the authors to believe that a lack of resources for pedestrian safety may contribute to the high rate of accidents.