New Mexico nears top of list of pedestrian fatalities

June 11, 2011

the group "transportation for america" says new mexico is the fourth most dangerous state in the country for pedestrians. heather mills spent some time along central.. one of the worst corridors for pedestrian fatalities .. and joins us live on central near the fairgrounds ... heather? in the short time i was out here earlier today.. i saw dozens of pedestrians jaywalking across central.. some even running to avoid cars and buses... but very few actually obeying the street lights. "you can see it right now, you know, folks jay walking and stuff." "they end up jay walking and they get hit, it's always better to use the streetwalks." 548 pedestrians were killed in new mexico between 2000 and 2009.. making the state the fourth deadliest in the nation. and.. a majority of the fatalities seem to occur right along central avenue between wyoming and louisiana. robert lopez "there's beeen a few accidents around in this area that involve pedestrians, gettting killed." tom sproule says he feels safe on his bike.. but uses extra caution because he has been hit in the past. tom sproule people are just not paying attention, they whip right out in front of you, or you're in the cross walk and they keep going anyways, it's like you don't exist." and.. new mexico ranks ninth nationally for fatalities of pedestrians over the age of 65. "honestly, you know, people tell you it'd be hard, but they'd be better of just crossing at the street light." one out of every ten pedestrian killed was killed inside a crosswalk.