From 1 January to 31 December 2023, 440 pedestrians died, mowed down by the distraction of those who were driving at that fateful moment. These are partial data drawn up by ASAPS – Association of Supporters and Friends of the Traffic Police in collaboration with Sapidata – through news taken from press agencies and approximately 500 contacts across the national territory. A partial balance sheet that does not take into account the seriously injured who very often will lose their lives in hospitals even months later. In fact, Istat only counts deaths in the first thirty days after the accident. The definitive ISTAT data for 2022 indicated the number of dead pedestrians at 485 and the risk of this being exceeded is very high for pedestrians who were injured and then died in hospital.
Six victims at the end of 2023
In the last week of 2023 there were 6 deaths among the most vulnerable users. Many pedestrians have been killed in the safest place, on pedestrian crossings in urban centers, despite the loss of 8 points from the license in case of failure by vehicle drivers. Or even while they were walking calmly on the sidewalk or waiting at the bus stop. There are still too many cases of piracy, over forty with 10% of all fatal investments, with the driver fleeing which caused the fatal accident. Thanks to video surveillance systems and actual technological investigations, the police manage to track down the perpetrator in 80% of cases, but despite the introduction of the crime of road homicide which has increased the penalties, running away remains a behavior too frequent from north to south of Italy, with drunk users or with suspended or revoked driving licenses, or with vehicles without insurance coverage.
The regions
The analysis by region confirms Lazio as the most dangerous, with a real massacre with 71 deaths, one sixth of the total, of which 42 in Rome, where crossing the road is a very high risk. But the data is also very worrying in Lombardy 51 and Campania 44. Broken down by month, 53 deaths occurred in January, 36 in February, 31 in March, 18 in April, which had a better trend than the previous three months. Then there were 21 deaths confirmed in May, 32 in June and 38 in July. In August there were 37 deaths and in September, the worst month of the year 2023, with 52 crosses on the roads, a real carnage, which even surpasses the year 2019, before COVID. 47 deaths in October. November closed at 32 and December closed with 43 deaths.
The summer period
The ASAPS analysis shows that in the months of June and July 2023 more pedestrians died than in 2022, according to data published by ISTAT, in fact 28 pedestrians died in June and 35 in July. A total of 283 men and 157 women died. From the ASAPS report, the elderly are the most defenseless, more than half, that is, 231 pedestrians were over 65 years old, due to reduced reflexes and partial difficulties in walking. Unfortunately, 17 pedestrians were under the age of 18, of which two died in April, one in June, a child in Veneto and a little girl aged just six, who fled the war in Ukraine and died in Potenza, a 13-year-old in Negrar di Valpolicella, killed by a hit-and-run driver then arrested last July 31st and in August a 17-year-old in the Bergamo area and a 15-year-old in Lazio in September and a 15-year-old in October in the same region, and a sixteen-year-old in Turin. Many investments have involved workers on road construction sites, where the issue of safety at work and suitable road signs to warn motorists early also often emerges, as well as elderly people hit by garbage vehicles along city streets, and there are dozens of cases of motorists getting out of broken-down cars and then hit by vehicles, highlighting the absolute need to make themselves visible with the special retro-reflective jacket that everyone must be equipped with on board vehicles. ASAPS, in order to raise increasing awareness on the topic of road safety, has activated geolocalization updated in real time with the locations of road homicides, with the details of the streets, the age of the pedestrian and the vehicle involved. It is possible to view the map on the website www.asaps.it which has reached 173,000 views, becoming a point of reference for the mass media, administrators, professionals and ordinary citizens.
The ASAPS president
“Another year ends with hundreds of dead pedestrians, every day more than one person, man, woman, elderly person or child, will not return home because of a vehicle that will take their life,” declares ASAPS president Giordano Biserni. “The bill now in the Transport Committee of the Chamber of Deputies needs to be approved urgently, in fact we fear that parliamentary work will take many months, as happened with the law on road homicide. ASAPS also asks to review the positive proposal that introduces the mini-suspension of the driving license in case of numerous violations of the highway code, but only for those with less than 20 points, 5% of all drivers in Italy. It must be introduced for everyone without distinction of the points possessed. Very often it is the distraction from the mobile phone that causes you to lose concentration while driving, with pedestrians flying away after a collision on a pedestrian crossing. Too much violence, more dedicated patrols and certain sanctions are needed, even if the signs of the last few weeks denote a greater number of checks by all law enforcement agencies, Traffic Police, Carabinieri, Financial Police and Local Police, which it will have to continue for the year 2024, which has just begun”.
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