Confronting vision shows pedestrians wandering into traffic

A pedestrian walks directly in front of incoming traffic on a busy Sydney road. Photo / Supplied

Warning: Confronting video

Dashcam footage from close calls on NSW roads shows how lucky some pedestrians are to be alive.

Vision shared with news.com.au shows several pedestrians walking directly into the path of traffic on busy Sydney roads.

On more than one occasion the pedestrian is struck by either a car or a bus. Some are looking at their phones while others appear completely oblivious to the fact that they should not be in the middle of the road.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance says the vision is extremely concerning.

"We are seeing a worrying increase in zombie-like behaviour from pedestrians and it needs to end now before more lives are lost," he said.

A pedestrian walks directly in front of incoming traffic on a busy Sydney road. Photo / Supplied

"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.

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

According to the NSW Centre for Road Safety, 86 per cent of pedestrians who were killed or injured as a result of a collision with a car were adults.

The pedestrian road toll in NSW is 38 this year. Three of those cases involved pedestrians being struck by buses.

Last year there were 55 pedestrians killed on NSW roads.

Thirty-seven pedestrians were killed on Victorian roads in 2018 and, according to the Transport Accident Commission, 400 pedestrians lost their lives on Victorian roads between 2008-2018.

In 2017, 35 pedestrians died on Queensland roads and only one of those was under the age of 17.