It is if somebody gets killed. Recently a guy wearing headphones and listening (apparently) to his cell phone walked across the street against the light and directly in front of my car. He was completely oblivious that there was a light and didn't even hear me slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him.
You don't have sidewalks on streets with speeds of 50mph or more ?
Here in AZ if you walk in front of a car and get hit, it is your fault. Legally.
Arizona law does say that at no time, even when entering a crosswalk, should a pedestrian step out so quickly in front of a vehicle that a vehicle does not have time to come to a full stop.
§ 46.2-924: ... No pedestrian shall enter or cross an intersection in disregard of approaching traffic. ...
Sadly, that clause is never enforced on pedestrians who do "enter or cross ... in disregard of approaching traffic". I've even seen some who seem to have some kind of personal death wish. They approach an intersection at full walking speed, do not even look to see what traffic is doing (and are not phone distracted either), do not slow down, and just burst out into traffic.
Yes, drivers bear a large responsibility here, given that they are operating the 3000+lb machine. But some enforcement of the statute clauses that already exist against the worst offenders on the pedestrian side, to reduce the incidents of pedestrian forcing their way in front of moving vehicles without regard to the presence of those vehicles, would also go a long way towards reversing the statistics direction.
