According to a report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, the United States saw its largest annual increase in pedestrian fatalities since such record keeping began 40 years ago.

The association said that there were about 6,000 pedestrian deaths in 2016, the highest number in more than 20 years. Of course, there are no moves to ban mobile phones or do anything about it. After all this is the US which offers its citizens
many ways to exit the gene pool due to stupidity - there were 13,286 people killed in the US by firearms in 2015 and no one plans to restrict the use of guns.

However, since 2010, pedestrian fatalities have grown at four times the rate of overall traffic deaths.

The report said that drivers and pedestrians who are distracted by their smartphones are less likely to be aware of their surroundings, creating the potential for danger.

The Governors Highway Safety Association looked at data from the first six months of 2016 that came from 50 state highway safety offices and the District of Columbia. The complete data will be available later this year.

The findings come as traffic safety experts have called for eliminating deaths on roads. Near-term solutions include designing roads and vehicles to be safer. Cutting down on speeding and drunk driving are obvious targets.