• The UK had a child pedestrian death rate double the rates of Norway and the Netherlands.
    In the UK, 48% of children killed on the roads were child pedestrians - this is the highest proportion in western European countries.
    Including all ages, 23% of UK road deaths were pedestrians - again the highest proportion in western European countries.
    It is not clear why UK pedestrians take such a high share of UK road casualties, but some possible factors are poor speed limit enforcement, high urban speed limits, lack of legal protection for pedestrians, and the high UK drink-driving limit.

    http://www.travelindependent.org.uk/casualties_european.html

    Poor speed limit enforcement

    The UK issues fewer speeding tickets per head than almost all of the other 13 countries in this comparison [2]. The Netherlands and Austria issue about 20 times as many speeding tickets as the UK per head.
    High urban speed limits

    Some countries have extensive 30km/h (20mph) speed limits in residential areas. The UK is now starting to introduce these, but there are uncertainties over the commitment of the police to enforce them [3] [4].

    Lack of legal protection (assumed liability)

    In France, Belgium and the Netherlands, liability for personal injury damages suffered by a pedestrian after being hit by a vehicle rests with the driver involved, unless it can be shown that the pedestrian acted in a way that was clearly illegal and/or seriously negligent [5]. This is said to make drivers very careful not to risk collisions with pedestrians or cyclists.

    The high UK drink-driving limit.

    The drink-driving limit is higher in the UK (and the Republic of Ireland) at 80mg/ml than it is in the rest of Europe, where it is 50mg/ml or less. [6].

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