Woman Killed After being Struck by a Vehicle on Merritt Island, Florida

MERRITT ISLAND, FL – According to an online news report at floridatoday.com, a female pedestrian died while attempting to go across a Merritt Island roadway earlier this week.*

The forty-six-year-old female was not using a crosswalk or an intersection when she tried to walk across Courtenay Parkway at Hickory Avenue in the nighttime hours, per the Florida Highway Patrol.

A 20 year-old woman from Merritt Island was operating a 2001 Toyota where she hit the pedestrian in the front of her vehicle. The identity of the pedestrian is pending notification to the woman’s next of kin, per the Florida Highway Patrol. The accident remains under investigation by the local police. There are no further details on the crash at this time.

According to an article from miamiherald.com, Florida ranks the highest in the country for the amount of pedestrian fatalities.  With its year-round warm weather, many people take to foot in the state to enjoy the outdoors, get some exercise, and go sightseeing.

Nine of the twenty deadliest United States cities for pedestrians are located in Florida, with Orlando ranked as the number one least safe city for pedestrians in the country.   The Miami-Fort Lauderdale- West Palm Beach area was ranked number fourteen.  These statistics were generated by the 2019 “Dangerous By Design” report from Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition. 

Florida has continued to maintain its place as being the most hazardous place to walk in American due to the risks of being hit and killed by a motorist.

On a national basis, data generated between 2008 and 2017 indicates that the amount of yearly pedestrian deaths in the United States increased by nearly 36%.  Almost 50,000 pedestrians died during that ten-year period.  This is over thirteen individuals who are killed each pay and one person killed every hour and 46 minutes.

Accident News is a driver safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes.  To learn more about our injury prevention programs, including iridesafe.com - click here. We hope you are never in an accident, but if you or family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.

Source:https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2019/06/26/pedestrian-46-killed-while-crossing-merritt-island-road/1568336001/ and https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article224923045.html