Pedestrian Fatality Characterization in the Mayaguez Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico

Published in: Innovation in Engineering, Technology and Education for Competitiveness and Prosperity: Proceedings of the 11th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology
Date of Conference: August 14-16, 2013
Location of Conference: Cancun, Mexico
Authors: Benjamin Colucci Ríos
Dafne Valle Javier
Refereed Paper: #67

Abstract:

In English:
The average pedestrian fatalities in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico over the last decade represent 31% of all crash fatalities. This trend is similar to the Mayagüez Metropolitan area with 29% of fatalities during the same period. The objective of this study is to characterize pedestrian crash fatalities in the Mayagüez area and its surrounding 8 municipalities. A database was developed using the Puerto Rico Police Department statistics. The important pertinent findings associated with this study showed that the city of Mayagüez has the highest frequency of pedestrian fatal crashes of the region with 42%, of which 68% were male and 32% female, and 44% were over 60 years. Pedestrian fatalities peak hours were between 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM with approximately 34%. Municipality and road segments cross tabulation showed that 26% of the pedestrian fatalities were located between kms 154 to 156 on PR-2 Corridor in Mayagüez with the highest concentration of public residential housing, elementary and high schools and government services on this eight lane urban arterial. The community was divided with a pedestrian bridge constructed approximately 50 years ago which is seldom used by the residents.