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If you’re ever heading out on a bicycle to the great state of Florida, you’ll want to say goodbye to your family first. Bicycling is dangerous no matter where you go on the road, but Florida ranks 7 out of the top 10 places for biking deaths, according to a new analysis of federal highway data, as reported Guardian,
Injury law firm Bader Scott used National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data to tally the number of cyclists killed in road crashes between 2017 and 2021, limiting the search to America’s 200 most populous counties Went. Unusually severe demonstrations occurred in Florida.
Pasco County, just outside Tampa, Florida, was the worst. Only 562,000 people live in Pasco, but the county reported 40 bicycling deaths during this period in the data set. Put another way, about 7.12 out of every 100,000 residents died on a bicycle.
The only other states to appear on the list were Louisiana and California. Here is the Hall of Shame in full:
- Pasco County, Florida: 40 deaths due to cycling; 7.12 deaths per 100,000
- Sarasota County, Florida: 24 deaths; 5.53
- Manatee County, Florida: 21 deaths; 5.24
- East Baton Rouge County, Louisiana: 23 deaths; 5.04
- Pinellas County, Florida: 48 deaths; 5
- Orleans County, Louisiana: 19 deaths; 4.95
- Volusia County, Florida: 27 deaths; 4.88
- San Joaquin County, California: 37 deaths; 4.75
- Marion County, Florida: 17 deaths; 4.52
- Hillsboro, Florida: 66 deaths; 4.52
If you are seeing a pattern, it is because road accidents are a systemic issue. The story around accidents usually focuses on individuals making bad decisions, but the design of the road works like a machine that pipes drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians through it. Replacing infrastructure is an expensive and labor-intensive process, but doing the work to prioritize security saves lives.
Sadly, cyclists share an unusually high percentage of fatalities. Center for Disease Control and Prevention It is reported that bicycle travel accounts for only 1% of all trips in the US, but 2% of people who die in road accidents are on bikes. Every week, approximately 17 cyclists die on American roads. Each year, bicycling deaths in the US average about 1,000, and an additional 130,000 cyclists are injured.
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