The operators of almost a third of the vehicles reported having sounded their horn to warn the pedestrian. More than half of the accidents involved trains.

Dr. Richard Lichenstein led the study by medical researchers at the University of Maryland. The findings appear in the journal Injury Prevention.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: Demand for smaller cars continues to redefine the auto industry in the United States. That demand is bringing jobs back to an industry that lost tens of thousands of workers in the last ten years.

But it does not help some existing workers, like Nicole Current.

NICOLE CURRENT: "I make truck axles, so as the auto industry tries to get away from the larger size vehicles, and tries to get to more fuel efficient, more economical vehicles, and gas prices being where they are with what product we make, it makes it extremely difficult when in the actual economy, people aren't buying trucks."

The changes in what people are buying is creating jobs in the so-called green car industry and eliminating others, like Ms. Current's job. She has worked on an assembly line in Detroit, Michigan, for fifteen years. She hopes to find one of those new jobs.

Auto analyst Aaron Bragman says car sales have slowly been increasing over the last few months in the United States. This, he says, is mainly because old cars need to be replaced.

AARON BRAGMAN: "The American vehicle fleet, which is the total sum of all the vehicles on the road, is actually the oldest it's ever been. It's over ten years old right now. People simply have to get a new one because the old ones are starting to wear out.”