[atonse]

Depends on how you frame it. Yes, there might be many cases where it's the driver's fault, but there are cases where the pedestrians were jaywalking and behaving in erratic ways.

I remember hearing a statistic (I can't find the source yet so please treat it as unverified) that a non-trivial proportion of pedestrians that were run over were intoxicated (the pedestrians, not the drivers).

I'm not saying this to assign blame to one party or another, just to refute the simplistic statement that it's just the drivers' fault.

[acdha]

It’s almost always the driver’s fault for speeding or not paying attention – people say “they jumped in front of me” but almost any time the police look for camera footage or find witnesses, it turns out that the driver wasn’t paying attention.

The problem is that if someone is killed, they aren’t around to argue their side of the story and most cases simply aren’t investigated.

[shiroiushi]

It doesn't matter if pedestrians are intoxicated. You should be driving slow enough to stop. Here in Japan, if a driver hits a pedestrian, they're always at fault, with almost no exceptions. It doesn't matter if some kid runs out in front of you: you're the one traveling faster, in a dangerous vehicle, so you should be able to stop. Because of this, vehicle speeds in residential or pedestrian-filled areas are generally quite slow; people only drive fast on the limited-access highways.