8:29 am: Harriet Dozier

Pedestrians

More than 1 of every 10 people who die in crashes is a pedestrian, and most of the deaths occur in urban areas. Children younger than 16 are most likely to be struck, but their fatal injury rates are lower than those of elderly pedestrians, who aren't hit as often but are more likely to die from their injuries.

Rahway, New Jersey: Harriet Dozier could recite poetry verbatim, says her pastor of 23 years, the Reverend Ronald Green of Greater Mount Mariah Baptist Church in Linden, New Jersey. The 83-year-old great-grandmother often would share favorite poems at church dinners and during visits to the local nursing home.

"She had a gift," Reverend Green says. "She was a very super lady" with "a great personality. She was in church every Sunday. She was a great missionary and a great Christian. She was the type of person who would do good things without wanting applause for it."

Dozier frequently walked around Rahway doing her errands. The morning she died she was crossing the intersection of Main Street and Milton Avenue, on a walk signal, and had nearly made it over when she was knocked down in the crosswalk by a Lexus SUV.

The 74-year-old man at the wheel told police he didn't see Dozier until his wife pointed her out. Startled, his foot slipped off the brake pedal onto the accelerator, sending the SUV lurching into Dozier, who died of head trauma. She was the second of 8 pedestrians to die that day and among the 4,881 pedestrians killed during 2005.

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