MAP: AutoPed deaths endemic along I-35, US-183, Ben White Blvd.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A vehicle colliding with a pedestrian (AutoPed) at any speed can injure or even kill. KXAN looked at such collisions over 2022 and into 2023 to determine where they occur.

According to data from the Austin Police Department (APD), the majority of AutoPeds appear to occur near I-35, US-183 and Ben White Blvd. AutoPeds also were reported in outlier areas in east Austin. These locations roughly line up with where fatal car collisions also occur in the city.

What makes an AutoPed fatal?

Multiple factors are at play in any vehicle collision, but the primary ones are speed, size of a vehicle and the general health of a pedestrian. The heavier a vehicle, and the faster that vehicle travels, the more force it imparts in a collision.

Research in 2011 by AAA's Foundation for Traffic Safety (FTS) found that the risk of death in an AutoPed reaches 10% if the impact speed is over 23 miles per hour. That risk jumps to 50% if the car is traveling at 42 mph and then to 90% at 58 mph.

AAA noted that age also plays a role in pedestrian survival, with significant variations by age -- a 70-year-old being hit by a car traveling at 25 mph has the same chance of surviving as a 30‐year‐old getting hit by a car going 35mph.