PEMCO Insurance will issue a news release tomorrow, June 18, based on the latest results from the PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll. We learned that 88% of Northwest drivers say they see pedestrians who are distracted while crossing streets or walking on sidewalks: 90% say the distraction is talking on a cell phone, 86% say they see people texting, and 72% see pedestrians listening with earbuds or headphones. What’s funny is, 67% of those drivers say they themselves are rarely or never distracted when they’re pedestrians.Our key message: distracted pedestrians have higher risk for getting hit by cars, because they’re not paying attention to their surroundings. The release will quote NHTSA stats saying pedestrian fatalities made up 16% of all traffic deaths in both Washington and Oregon in 2012, when 127 pedestrians died.
As always, if you get inquiries from the news media, please refer them to Jon Osterberg, Marketing Communications manager, at 206-628-4019.
The full news release will be posted tomorrow morning on pemco.com at http://www.pemco.com/about_us/details/newsreleases.aspx. You’ll also find it on the film strip in the center of the homepage, or under “About Us” and “News Releases.”
