A False Sense Of Security

Marked crosswalks can actually be more dangerous for elderly people than unmarked crossings, a study suggests.

Pedestrians 65 and older were three times more likely to be hit by cars when they crossed at intersections with painted crosswalks but no stop signs or traffic signals, rather than at unmarked crossings.

"Marked crosswalks may give older pedestrians a false sense of security," which, coupled with their slow walking pace, makes them especially vulnerable, the study said.

University of Washington researcher Dr. Thomas Koepsell and colleagues examined pedestrian-car accidents at several cities in Washington state and California from 1995 to 1999. More than 800 street locations were analyzed.

The findings appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

During the study, there were 282 accidents involving cars and older pedestrians. Twenty of those pedestrians died.

An accompanying editorial noted that while less than 13 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or older, elderly adults accounted for nearly 22 percent of the 4,882 pedestrian deaths in car crashes last year.

Drs. Jeffrey Runge, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and JAMA contributing editor Thomas Cole said in the editorial that adding traffic signals, improving lighting and educating older pedestrians might reduce the number of deaths.