The statistics are harsh, and the reality is frightening. Pedestrian deaths in 2019 were the highest in the past 30 years. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association calculates that there were 6590 pedestrian deaths in 2019, a 5% increase from 2018. The GHSA’s report calculated that there were close to 6,600 pedestrian fatalities, which marked a 60% increase in deaths over the last decade. All other traffic deaths rose only two percent during that same time span. Five states—California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Florida—accounted for 47% of pedestrian deaths, yet these states make up 33% of the U.S. population.

The GSHA report offered that a number of trends provide insight into the many causes behind the rise in pedestrian fatalities:

• • Most pedestrian fatalities take place on local roads, at night and away from intersections, suggesting the need for safer road crossings and increased efforts to make pedestrians and vehicles more visible. During the past 10 years, the number of nighttime pedestrian fatalities increased by 67%, compared to a 16% increase in daytime pedestrian fatalities.
  • Many unsafe driving behaviors – such as speeding, distracted and drowsy driving – pose risks to pedestrians, and alcohol impairment by the driver and/or pedestrian was reported in nearly half of traffic crashes that resulted in pedestrian fatalities in 2018.
  • Pedestrians struck by a large SUV are twice as likely to die as those struck by a car. Although passenger cars are the largest category of vehicles in fatal pedestrian crashes, the number of pedestrian fatalities over the past decade involving SUVs increased at a faster rate – 81% – than passenger cars, which increased by 53%.

“Each year, thousands of additional people are dying in pedestrian crashes compared to a decade ago” said report author Richard Retting. “Following 30 years of declining pedestrian fatalities, there has been a complete reversal of progress. Pedestrians are at an inherent disadvantage in collisions, and we must continue to take a broad approach to pedestrian safety.”

A Fresh Technology Approach

As a safety solution to this increasingly toxic issue, Intelligent Security Systems (ISS), a leading international vendor of solutions for implementation of integrated security and automation technology and logistic processes, has developed SecurOS Soffit, an intelligent system of light accompaniment for pedestrians that helps prevents pedestrians being struck on crosswalks. The solution is billed as an intelligent system of people-escorting by dynamic illumination to prevent an accidental hit-and-run on a pedestrian at unregulated crossing.

Here is how it works. SecurOS Soffit draws the drivers attention to the pedestrian by escorting them with dynamic illumination along the pedestrian crossing. That dynamic illumination then enables a significant increase in the speed of drivers’ visual-motor response, enhancing the possibility to brake in time and to avoid accidents. The use of SecurOS Soffit can improve road safety, while giving potentially distracted drivers a better chance to observe pedestrians that might be in harm’s way; all the while aiding in the reduction of the overall number of fatalities.

The rising crisis of pedestrian fatalities has gained the attention of a wide swarth of dedicated parties from municipal city planners and traffic engineers to safety equipment and automobile manufacturers. In fact, advanced sensor technologies are now a part of almost every new vehicle with an eye on safety.  Driver assistance technologies like forward-collision warning, adaptive lighting and pedestrian automatic emergency braking not only keep drivers and passengers safe, but they keep other drivers and pedestrians safe too. 

However, the SecurOS Soffit designed to operate automatically 24/7, is the only solution of its kind on the market and uses video analytics detectors that are based on artificial intelligence technologies using Intel cameras and built on an Intel platform. The solution provides video processing from IP-camera that can detect pedestrians, determining their location at every moment and tracking their trajectory according to change in their speed. The algorithms are resistant to frame interference from noise like precipitation, trees and shadows falling on pedestrian crossing. Machine learning technologies minimize the chance that the device will respond to a non-human object.

Some of the key advantages of the SecurOS Soffit solution include:

• • Combined static illumination of a pedestrian crossing and dynamic illumination of persons while they movement through the “zebra”
  • Function of pulsating illumination (in the active mode)
  • No glare for drivers due to a LED projector design features
  • Neural network detector of “Human” (i.e., homo sapiens)
  • Function of transmitting video and statistical data to third-party systems
  • High protection class — IP66
  • Adjustable brightness of LED modules
  • Activated by the lighting sensor/the signal from the traffic light controller (when the traffic light is switched to “standby mode”)
  • Ease of installation

One strength of this solution is its interoperability with other traffic violations detection systems. SecurOS Soffit may operate with SecurOS Velox and SecurOS Crossroad and can ensure the detection of traffic violations like:

• • Not giving way to pedestrians,
  • Not following speed limit,
  • Red light driving, driving through stop-sign while red light is active,
  • Bus-lane driving,
  • Wrong-way lane driving,
  • Not following road signs and many other traffic violations.

Joint use of SecurOS Soffit and traffic violations detection systems SecurOS Velox and SecurOS Crossroad addresses two important social challenges: increasing the pedestrians’ safety and motivating drivers to comply with the traffic regulations.

If you are interested in learning more about our pedestrian safety technology solutions, we invite you to visit our website for more information, or contact us today and let us show you how [email protected].