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Disturbing video shows 'zombie pedestrians' wandering into traffic

Transport authorities have released shocking footage showing distracted pedestrians wandering onto roads and into the path of oncoming vehicles.

In some of the incidences captured in the confronting footage, the pedestrians are even hit.

The risk-taking behaviour showing people dicing with death has prompted transport bosses to dub them ‘zombie pedestrians’.

The footage which was sent to Yahoo News Australia on Thursday was mostly captured on the dashcams of Transport NSW buses.

“We are seeing a worrying increase in zombie-like behaviour from pedestrians and it needs to end now before more lives are lost,” Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance said in a statement.

“There are pedestrians crossing roads distracted, head down, looking at their phone. We have others running across roads in front of moving vehicles.

“The basic road sense we teach our kids is being discarded by adults through either impatience or complacency.

pedestrian hit by a taxi on NSW road after trying to cross after the light had changed to green.
One confronting clip showed a pedestrian being hit by a taxi after trying to cross the road after the light had changed to green. Source: Transport NSW

“I urge all pedestrians to keep your head up, obey the traffic lights and please look out before you step out.”

NSW Centre for Road Safety Executive Director Bernard Carlon also voiced serious concern over the dangerous lack of road awareness, adding that preliminary data had shown 86 per cent of pedestrians killed or injured in crashes in 2018 were aged 18 or over.

“We need all pedestrians to be safer, especially around busy roads where heavy vehicles like buses operate,” Mr Carlon said.

NSW’s current pedestrian road toll for 2019 sits at 38, with three of these fatalities involving a bus.

State Transit CEO Steffen Faurby emphasised the traumatic impact road incidents involving pedestrians had on bus drivers.

“The last thing a bus driver wants is to be involved in an incident with any road user,” he said in a statement.

“A standard 12.5 metre-long bus can weigh up to 18 tonnes, and while they are operated by professional drivers these vehicles cannot stop easily or quickly.”

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