Later this year. Your participation is vital. The number of deaths on Morris County s highways dropped to at least a 15-year low in 1999, when 24 people died in 23 accidents. But crossing the road became more dangerous in that time nearly 30 percent of those killed were pedestrians, according to an analysis of federal accident data. The data show that despite an ever-increasing number of vehicles on Morris County roads, commuters here appear to be statistically safer than at any other time in the recent past.
Officials attribute the decreasing highway death toll to safer cars and safer highways.
They say New Jersey s high rate of pedestrian deaths is due, at least in part, to the fact that the state is the most densely populated in the nation. Nonetheless, they say, the pedestrian death statistics are troublesome and have proven difficult to improve. Nationally, about 13 percent of all those involved in fatal accidents are pedestrians. It s a big problem. 7 out of 24 Seven of the 24 people killed in Morris County accidents in 1999 three in Parsippany alone were pedestrians.