While drunken driving may be decreasing, traffic safety experts remain troubled how to cope with another alcohol-related problem: drunken pedestrians(行人). Studies have shown that pedestrians injured and killed by are often extremely drunk.
Some types of pedestrian accidents have been decreasing in the U.S., especially those involving children, but the number of drunken adult pedestrians killed in traffic has remained relatively constant at 2,500 a year. The total number of pedestrians killed annually in U.S. traffic accidents is at least 7,000 or one of every seven highway accidents resulting in death.
Studies have revealed some of the causes, including a lack of adult supervision (监督) for children, long delays in traffic signals that encourage jaywalking(无视交通规则任意行走), less attention paid to pedestrian accidents in the past, and few methods to regulate walking habits. However, the most challenging problem, according to some experts, is alcohol-related. Although pulled, researchers are making great efforts to find ways against the drunken pedestrian accidents.