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From The Newspaper (7) 　Pedestrian

November 3, 2022

"Sunsets getting earlier, traffic accident prevention ~The Prefectural Police increasing patrols, attempting to spread a custom of 'raising a hand when crossing'." The news article read that in the autumn when the sunset gets earlier, traffic accidents tend to increase, the Prefectural Police have been increasing patrols to decrease cars' speeding and obstruction to pedestrians. From the 21st (of September) the National Autumn Traffic Safety Campaign has started. Communication between a driver and a pedestrian, 'hand communication', is effective to prevent pedestrian accidents. This fact should be spread. The article stated that the research of the Prefectural Police analyzed the deaths of people 65 years old and older in the last 10 years, from 2012 to 2021. In November, there were 45 deaths on average, it was the highest; in October, 44 deaths; and, in September, 42 deaths. In September from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 8 people died, while in October from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., 14 people died. It means that the one hour after sunset has many victims. On the paper, there was a graph of deaths of people who were 65 years old and older for each month. The lowest 2 months were July (21 deaths) and June (22 deaths), which are just half of the autumn months. It's clear that the darker the days, the more people die. The article also mentioned that 90% of those victims hadn't worn reflective materials on their shoes or clothing.   He drives, and he could say that the twilight time was the most difficult time for drivers to recognize pedestrians. And, he also could say that walking in all dark clothing at night is very dangerous. He had almost hit a few people a couple of times. So, wearing reflective materials is effective. The article also added about 'hand communication', he heard this term for the first time, though. Pedestrians passing on the crosswalk raise their hand and communicate with the drivers, it is termed 'hand communication'. The police had researched three crosswalks that were without traffic lights in April and May. The cases that a person raised his/her hand and the car stopped was 88.6% of the time, while those who didn't raise their hand and the car stopped was 59.7% of the time. So, the police would like this 'hand communication' custom to take root in society. Until recently, he had thought that raising a hand is surely effective, but embarrassing for adults. Actually, he would often watch children up to junior high school raise their hands, but high school students would rarely, while adults never raise their hands. But recently, when he was driving in his car, he saw a middle aged woman raising her hand at a crosswalk. The car in front of him stopped. The woman walked across the road speedily, it was a regular width one-lane road, and when she got to the opposite side, she turned to the driver and bowed. Her motion was natural and somehow graceful. Recently, there was an incident in which a famous comedian in his early 80s was hit by a van and died. He was popular among people, so it was shocking news. He checked on the internet and learned that the comedian was walking or running across a busy and relatively wide road that didn't have a crosswalk. The driver of the van was a 73 year old man, driving a welfare facility's car. The car speed was 30 kph on a 40 kph limit road. Some of the messages posted on the internet read that they felt sorry for the driver, and it is the comedian who should be blamed. He started to think about his own walking paths and street crossings. He would sometimes walk/run across a 2-lane road when it was not busy, although the crosswalk is only 50m away. He should change this habit.

No. 494




*crosswalk :歩道
*pedestrian :歩行者
*take root in :浸透する
*up to :までの
*graceful :優雅な