Everett Launches Public Education Campaign for Street Safety

They call it Street Smartz, a public education campaign aimed at anyone who walks, bikes, drives or rides in Everett. According to Everett public information director Kate Reardon, the city is trying to get people to be safer on its streets. They’ve offered the following statistics on the city’s web page…

In 2011 Everett emergency responders were dispatched to 64 motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) involving pedestrians and/or bicyclists. That’s over once per week. In the first half of 2012, we have been dispatched to 34 such calls, so we are on track to meet or exceed last year’s total.

That statistic is pretty stable over the past 5 years. Over that time frame, approximately 5% of all motor vehicle collision calls we were dispatched to involved a pedestrian/bicyclist.

There were 2 pedestrian deaths in 2011 and 1 so far for 2012. (These were the “obvious deaths” or DOAs – there may have been more cases where someone died after we took them to the hospital, but we wouldn’t know that).

In 2011, emergency responders in Everett treated more than 71 patients for injuries related to bikes, skateboards and scooter accidents, some of which involved vehicles. More than 75 percent of those injuries were severe enough they warranted a trip to the ER via and ambulance. In just the first six months of 2012, they have already responded to 50 such injuries.