Imagine walking down the street, obeying all the rules of the road only to have a distracted driver collide with you in a crosswalk. This unfortunate situation is far too common, even in places like Columbia. Fortunately, those who are struck have the ability to file a claim to seek out compensation to pay for medical bills or lost wages, but that doesn’t stop the core problem or reduce risk.

To understand how many people are at risk of injuries and the ages that are most likely to be impacted, it’s important to look at pedestrian accidents between the years of 2012 and 2014, the latest years reported. The facts show that the most common age to be killed in a pedestrian accident is age 66 or older, not as a child as you might expect. By comparison, those between the ages of 41 and 45 and those between the ages of 56 and 60 are half as likely to be involved in a fatal accident as a pedestrian.

Those between the ages of 15 and 20 make up 23 of the fatalities for the data set. That’s 10 percent of the total fatalities for the state. Those aged 66 or older make up 15.65 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the state of Missouri.

Children are at risk of being injured, although they seem to be injured less often than those older than the age of 14. For example, there were no pedestrian accidents involving a 7-year-old in the three years recorded. One-year-olds were involved in accidents only twice in those three years. Additionally, those under the age of 1 were involved in only one accident.

Regardless of the age of the person involved, it is possible to make a claim. Drivers should be more careful, and making a claim is one way to drive that point home.

Source: Missouri Department of Transportation, “Total Fatalities by Age and Target Area,” accessed Nov. 01, 2016