Of two evils neither is less
In most cases, an accident is the result of someone breaking the rules. Either the pedestrian ran a red light, or the driver did not slow down before the crosswalk and ran the red light, and much more.
According to statistics from the Scientific Centre for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first six months of 2024, 3,958 accidents occurred at unregulated crossings in Russia, in which 148 pedestrians died. At controlled pedestrian crossings, motorists caused 1,862 collisions with pedestrians, killing 106 people.
Both pedestrians and drivers make mistakes, but the consequences for them are different: for pedestrians, injuries and possible deaths, for drivers, criminal penalties. Let us consider the tragic mistakes of all participants in accidents with pedestrians at intersections.
Pedestrian errors
They do not follow the traffic light and cross the road when it is red. Curiously, this deadly carelessness is often shown not by trained athletes with good reactions, but by older people, pedestrians with children and women with strollers. At intersections without traffic lights, they incorrectly estimate the distance to an approaching car. The safe distance to the car (provided it is travelling at a maximum speed of 60 km/h in the city) is about 100 metres. In fact, pedestrians often step out onto the road 10 to 30 metres from the car, forcing the driver to brake urgently. When crossing a multi-lane road, they do not check whether vehicles allow them to overtake in each lane. Many pedestrians are so confident of their priority at a pedestrian crossing that they will certainly cross the road when they see a car stopped in the first lane closest to them. Unfortunately, they do not take into account that the driver driving in the adjacent lane may not have noticed them and they are there at the exact moment when you are approaching the crossing. Lack of attention and lack of habit of assessing the situation on the road. Headphones, messaging on messengers while crossing the road, unwillingness to look around – all these are typical mistakes of pedestrians who have never been behind the wheel and do not know that the car does not stop in an instant and have not heard of the braking distance. Unfortunately, this illiteracy often costs the lives of people who cross the crossing on a bicycle or scooter without getting off the vehicle and do not use reflective elements.
Driver errors
They don’t slow down at a pedestrian crossing and don’t stop to let pedestrians pass. Markings and signs clearly warn drivers that they are approaching a zebra crossing, but some still ignore them and also don’t have time to react to a change in the traffic light. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross immediately after turning left or right. Drivers are so carried away by their turning maneuver or rely on their priority that they sometimes forget: the main person at the pedestrian crossing is the person walking. They don’t predict the behavior of pedestrians. A person at a pedestrian crossing is capable of unpredictable actions: speeding up, braking, stumbling, changing their mind and turning back. Therefore, there is a strict rule: do not go through the crossing until the person has crossed to the other side and left the zebra crossing. They don’t pay attention to neighboring cars that slow down before crossing to overtake at stops in the middle of the roadway. They do not take into account your braking distance at different times of the year and in different weather conditions. In the event of a snowstorm, ice, rain or poor visibility conditions, the car will brake differently, and if there is a pedestrian in front, every centimetre of braking distance becomes decisive.
Drivers also make mistakes among themselves, most often at uncontrolled intersections due to failure to comply with the traffic order. We remind you: at equivalent intersections the rule “interference from the right” applies: the driver on the right has priority. When turning left or making a U-turn, we allow oncoming traffic and right-turners to pass.
At priority junctions, we look at the signs on the main and secondary roads. If we are on a secondary road, we give way to those driving on the main road. If we are on the main road, we go first, but we check that the drivers on the secondary road remember the rules and give way to us.
Who controls the transitions?
The “cost of error” for pedestrians and drivers at intersections is spelled out in the Administrative Code. A driver who does not let a pedestrian cross the road must pay a fine of 1,500 to 2,500 rubles. A pedestrian who crossed the road in the wrong place, ran a red light or interfered with traffic must pay a fine of 500 to 1,000 rubles if a traffic police inspector is nearby. The driver’s violation can be recorded by a State Traffic Inspectorate employee or by a photo or video camera installed at a pedestrian crossing.
To determine whether the driver has given way to a pedestrian at an uncontrolled zebra crossing or not, the complex calculates the trajectory of the movement of the car and the pedestrian. If their paths cross, the camera takes the first photo: on it, the car is still far away and the pedestrian has already started moving across the zebra crossing.
The complex then measures the pace of the pedestrian and the speed of the car. If the pace of the pedestrian’s movement changes or the person stops completely, while the car continues to move, a second frame is taken. In general, the camera makes it possible to clearly assess whether the driver violated traffic rules by not giving way to a pedestrian.
What if the pedestrian is simply approaching the crossing or walking on the side of oncoming traffic, i.e. still far away from the car?
“These are technical issues; different manufacturers of photo and video recording systems have implemented the solution in different ways. As for the complexes installed in the Moscow region, Azimuth 4, I can say that if a pedestrian has entered a pedestrian crossing or approached it. This does not mean that a fine will be imposed. The trajectories of the pedestrian and the car must converge at some point. If a person is standing at a pedestrian crossing and, for example, drinks water and a car passes by, then the complex will not record this as a violation,” commented Alexander Dombrovsky, director of the traffic safety and analysis department of MVS Group.
Video and photo recording systems also discipline drivers and force them to slow down at pedestrian crossings. Every kilometre lost increases the chances of a pedestrian being involved in a collision: at the moment of impact, it depends on the speed of the car whether the pedestrian will survive. Thus, in a collision at a speed of 80 km/h 75% of pedestrians die, at a speed of 51 km/h – 25%, at a speed of 37 km/h – 10%.
Artificial speed bumps also help to reduce speed. They are installed in front of schools, kindergartens and other socially important institutions. But when it is impossible to install an artificial speed bump, the most effective measure to reduce accidents remains the installation of photo and video recording systems.
Scientists from the National Research University’s Higher School of Economics have found that the use of cameras reduces the number of collisions and accidents involving pedestrians by half. The systems are especially effective in summer, when, in good weather conditions, cars reach high speeds.
The effect of the complexes has already been studied in Moscow, where the number of accidents at zebra crossings in four months of 2024 decreased by almost 8% and the number of deaths in such accidents by 50%. The capital’s transport department reported that drivers have become more attentive: the number of violations by them for not allowing pedestrians to cross has decreased by 26%.
Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov linked this effect directly to the operation of photo and video recording systems installed at 109 pedestrian crossings in the city, which teach drivers to always give priority to pedestrians.
Safety at intersections
Road safety at intersections can be increased by improving traffic management, dividing traffic flows into separate lanes, installing traffic lights, signs and markings to guide drivers. Installing lights at intersections improves visibility at night and reduces the risk of accidents.
There are many measures, the rules for safe passage at an intersection are also known to everyone, but, unfortunately, not all drivers comply with them, hence the accident. And here the Traffic Inspectorate also comes to the aid of cameras that record signs of complex traffic violations, such as entering an intersection in the event of a traffic jam, passing a red light, turning right not from the far right, crossing markings indicating a “safety island” and much more.
How does a photo and video recording system detect, for example, whether a car has passed a red light? Very simple. So, there is a camera installed at the intersection. It is connected to a traffic controller that changes the traffic lights. The same controller transmits information to the camera that the red phase of the traffic light is on. At that very moment, the camera comes into play and takes two photos: the first, when the car is in front of the traffic light, the second, when the car has already passed the intersection.
As Alexander Dombrovsky points out, the evidence base must include photographic materials showing that the red light is on at the moment the vehicle crosses the intersection. In addition, the violation is always recorded on video.
Modern traffic management solutions, new technologies and strict control contribute to reducing the accident rate on Russian roads, but safety depends, above all, on drivers and pedestrians. It is best to wait a few seconds until the green light comes on. It is better to slow down gradually before the transition. Unfortunately, the cost of rushing at intersections and junctions is too high and not worth paying.
