Watch Your Step!

The front-page headline in this morning’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser read, “Seniors at risk on isle roads. A study finds Hawaii first in deaths among older pedestrians.” The figures were by the Centers for Disease Control taken from a Transportation for America report.

Hawaii, it seems, leads the nation with average annual senior pedestrian deaths of about 7.21 per 100,000 people age 65 or older, way higher than the number 2 state, Alaska (5.42 deaths). California, New York and Nevada round out the top five.

Sounds bad for Hawaii, huh?

Bottom line: Seniors need to be careful walking on sidewalks or crossing the street in Hawaii, because it's common knowledge that Hawaii drivers are not to be trusted.

I've been a pedestrian in perhaps one-fourth of the United States, including all those I've mentioned above, and I have to say I fear for my safety more in Hawaii than anywhere else that I cross the street - even New York, where cabbies drive like maniacs.