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Rush hour and dusk are probably not the best times to take a stroll along a busy road or to hoof it across an intersection, especially in Florida.
Neither is the midnight hour when bars are closing and parties are sometimes turning out.
Not only that, but rushing through school zones at the wheel, failing to slow down as you enter them or speeding up before you exit them — is a very bad idea.
So is looking at a cell phone, and not just for drivers. It’s also a bad idea if you’re walking on or near busy roads or while bicycling.
That’s what statistics produced by the Florida Highway Patrol suggest for any of Florida’s 67 counties, along with a recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association detailing pedestrian and other traffic fatalities in the country and the state last year.
Florida remains one of the most dangerous states for pedestrians, the new data shows, ranking in the top three behind New Mexico and Arizona for deaths.
FATALITIES
In 2023, 10,294 pedestrians were hit by cars, SUVs, trucks or motorcycles in Florida; of those, 790 were killed. That unhappy number included five deaths in Charlotte County, 25 deaths in Lee County and three deaths in Collier County. In Palm Beach County, 52 people on foot were killed by motor vehicles.