Concern over a five-year, 19-percent increase in pedestrian fatalities has caused the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to put together a Pedestrian Safety Forum that will take place on May 10, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (The forum can be viewed via webcast at: http://ntsb.capitolconnection.org/.)

In one year alone – from 2014 to 2015 -- the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that the number of pedestrians killed in accidents will have increased by 10 percent.

“Walking is the most basic form of transportation that everyone uses but the rising number of pedestrians dying and being injured is alarming,” said NTSB Vice Chairman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr. “We have learned how to keep drivers and passengers safer and we need to find more ways to protect pedestrians, too. The NTSB Pedestrian Safety Forum, and our future investigations, will help us understand what we can do to improve pedestrian safety and save lives.”

The forum will feature presentations from urban planners, highway engineers, transportation policy advocates, and public health interests. To better understand, and ultimately reverse the growing pedestrian safety problem, panelists will discuss the effects of policy efforts, highway design, and vehicle technologies on pedestrian safety.

The event is free and open to the public. It will be held in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C.

An archived webcast of the forum will be posted to the NTSB website several days after the event. The webcast will be available for 90 days.

NTSB forums are held in the interest of advancing transportation safety, for the purpose of raising public awareness, or bringing public attention to a particular matter or safety issue. Forums are not part of the NTSB investigative process and are not a means to obtain evidence for an investigation or safety study. Participation in NTSB forums is completely voluntary.