By Wendy Anders

Pedestrian deaths are the second largest type of traffic-related deaths registered in Costa Rica this year, reported the Transportation Ministry today.

Of the 42 pedestrian deaths reported so far this year, the ministry claims 37, or 88 percent, could have been prevented by people using pedestrian aerial bridges or crosswalks within close walking distance from where they decided to walk across busy intersections or highways.

Mario Calderón, Director de la Policía de Tránsito, said in a press statement,

“Probably the most difficult is to see how adults but the lives of their children, or nieces and nephews, or grandchildren at risk. In the case of adults, one can lament the fact that someone decided to cross a highway by dodging cars even though a pedestrian bridge is nearby, but what is unacceptable and should be strongly punished is when a guardian of a child also exposes them to these unnecessary risks.”

His force of 261 traffic police officers per shift is not enough to have an officer stationed at each pedestrian bridge and each major intersection throughout the country’s 35,000 km of roads. People must take responsibility for their own actions, said Calderón.

Pedestrian traffic-related deaths are second after motorcycle traffic-related deaths which this year stand at 114, and are followed by drunk driving (35), and crashes (33).