Pedestrians playing Russian roulette with Brisbane CBD traffic

Pedestrians are dicing with death on Brisbane’s CBD streets as they dash in front of traffic, with almost 100 near misses a day recorded at three intersections, a new video shows. Seven people have been killed crossing Brisbane roads this year alone.

CAMERAS spying on several Brisbane CBD intersections have captured pedestrians running in front of oncoming cars and blatantly crossing the road illegally.

One shot shows a person holding the hand of a child as they run across the intersection of Adelaide and Edward St, trying to outpace oncoming vehicles as the traffic lights turn green.

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Another shows two pedestrians running in front of turning cars at an intersection near the Queen St Mall.

The cameras were used by Brisbane City Council at three CBD intersections over a seven-day period as part of their city-wide pedestrian safety review, with the council set to hand down their final report on Tuesday.

Analysis of the footage revealed there were about 93 near misses with pedestrians and vehicles every day across the three intersections, with many making a last-minute dash as cars filtered around them.

Pedestrians caught in near misses with traffic in Brisbane’s CBD.

It was also revealed that the intersection of Albert and Elizabeth Streets was a distracted pedestrian hotspot.

About 63 pedestrians every day crossed the road at this intersection on the solid red signal while distracted, typically focussed on a mobile phone.

The same intersection also had the highest number of people illegally crossing the road on a solid red signal, with about 4500 people every day.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk stressed that pedestrians had to put their own safety first.

“Electronic devices are a great convenience, but in the right place and right time,” he said.

“So it’s just a simple message of being aware of your surrounds.”

Between 65 and 86 per cent of pedestrians crossed the road legally on the green signal at the three intersections.

The worst intersection for illegal crossings was Adelaide and Edward St, where 35 per cent of pedestrians who started to cross the road illegally on the flashing red signal.

Seven people have already been killed crossing Brisbane roads this year alone.

The council has claimed that the average pedestrian crash has a societal cost of $391,000, with the 215 pedestrian crashes recorded in 2017 estimated to have cost just shy of $85 million.