Oxnard Pedestrian Peril Cited

Oxnard ranks as the third most dangerous place to walk in California, according to a study released this week of 58 cities with populations over 100,000.

There were two pedestrians killed in the city in 2001 and a total of 101 injured, according to the report by the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Policy Project.

Those numbers dipped slightly from the previous year when four walkers were killed and 103 were injured.

Oxnard police officials Wednesday acknowledged the problem and said many of the accidents involve pedestrians or bicyclists walking or riding into the path of traffic.

“Obviously, we are going to make it safer for people to walk, but people who are walking need to look out for themselves, especially if they are with children,” Police Sgt. Ron Whitney said. “There is no way they can win against a car.”

In the report, which was compiled with statistics from the California Highway Patrol, Oxnard was ranked behind Vallejo in Solano County and Inglewood in Los Angeles County.

In Ventura County, Simi Valley placed 39th with two deaths and 19 injuries, followed by Ventura, which was 43rd, and Thousand Oaks, which ranked 55th.

Ventura County ranked as the 12th most dangerous for pedestrians out of a total of 35 counties with populations over 100,000. That compares with ninth place in 2000 and 17th in 1998.

There were 13 pedestrians killed in the county in 2001 versus 10 the previous year. The number of injuries dropped from 249 in 2000 to 240 last year.

Statewide, there were 721 pedestrian fatalities in 2001, an increase of 5% from the previous year, and 14,545 injuries.

Kristi Kimball, spokeswoman for the study group, said the organization’s statistics were compiled using several variables.

For example, although other cities recorded more deaths than the two in Oxnard, Oxnard ranked as more dangerous based on the percentage of people who walk there each day. According to the 2000 census, 1.6% of the city’s 182,000 residents walk to work. That’s about 3,000 people.

By comparison, the city of San Bernardino, which reported nine pedestrian deaths and 70 injuries last year, ranked 46th. The city has a population of 189,800, of which nearly 5,000 people, or 2.6%, walk to work.

“One of the things hurting Oxnard and other cities in the top eight or 10 is that they have low rates of people who are walking to work, but still have a good number of injuries and fatalities,” Kimball said.

The study’s rankings also showed a pattern between pedestrian danger and rapidly growing cities such as Oxnard, which grew 20% during the last decade.

The rankings also suggest a relationship between pedestrian danger and ethnicity. The 10 most dangerous cities have nonwhite populations of at least 64%. Oxnard’s population is 62% Latino, according to the census.

Immigrants are often accustomed to environments where walking is safer, or may not have the financial means to afford a vehicle, the study found.

Other factors include how cities are designed. Pedestrian-heavy cities such as San Francisco and Berkeley, with more crosswalks and flashing signals, are safer, Kimball said.

“The cities with the most walkers are often the safest,” she said.