A non-profit group concerned with making American streets safer for pedestrians named Memphis as the 5th most dangerous and Nashville as the 15th most dangerous respectively cities in the country for pedestrians.  In Nashville in particular, the group found fault with streets that were never designed to be safe for pedestrians in the first place, they were only designed with traffic slow and speed in mind for vehicles. In the past few years, As a concerned Nashville injury attorney, I have written many times about my growing frustration with the increasing number of pedestrian accidents and deaths in and around Nashville and the public and government’s apathy regarding them.  We have had 2 handicapped people and one student killed in crosswalks in Nashville in the past 18 months and a little old lady had her arm run over right in front of my Lebanon office and she was in the crosswalk and had the right of way.

I am not saying the motorists purposely mow pedestrians down in the crosswalks, but I keep hearing “the vehicle had the right of way”.  If you have a little old lady or a man in a wheelchair or a child trying to cross the street, and they lose the light in the middle of the street, you still need to give them time to cross.  And the light being green doesn’t relieve a motorists of the obligation to carefully scan for human beings in the street before hitting the gas.

We have taxpaying citizens who are trying to live in the city but it seems that most motorist treat Nashville’s downtown area like the Audobon and human beings like rabbits.  “Well hell, he just darted out in front of me!”  I think it’s a matter of alot of people who drive in downtown don’t live in urban areas. We live (me included) in rural areas where a person doesn’t have much business in the road and should use caution if they are – we use vehicles to get around.  In the city, people navigate to work and the store by foot traffic quite a bit and they have to traverse busy intersections to do it.

While pedestrians should always follow the law and be careful, the burden should also be on the motorist, since they are safely inside a several ton vehicle, to watch for these pedestrians and give them leeway at all times.

It’s a human life, it’s worth 30 more seconds at the light. Trust me.