Traffic-related deaths in the Washington area dropped last year by roughly 15 percent to 282, according to an annual report from Street Smart, a safety campaign funded by transit agencies and local jurisdictions.
During the 12 months ending in July 2010, 204 drivers, 73 pedestrians and five cyclists were killed in a traffic incident. The prior year, 329 people (80 pedestrians, 4 cyclists and 245 motorists) died.
The worst year since Street Smart began tracking data was in 2001, when 436 people died in traffic-related accidents. Last year marked the fifth-straight decline in total deaths.
Street Smart credits some of that success to its shock approach in its spring “Be Alert” campaign. One of its most remembered photos, according to a survey, is a rendering of a mother being hit by a car while the baby stroller rolls forward into traffic.
