A new California law provides an incentive for commercial property owners to install barriers to protect outdoor diners.
The law enables insurance companies to offer discounts on commercial property policyholders’ premiums if they install safety barriers. The legislation came after outdoor dining and similar streetside venues became commonplace during the Covid pandemic.
As outdoor dining increased, so did deaths and injuries from vehicles crashing into diners and pedestrians, according to the Storefront Safety Council. “These tragedies happen all around the U.S. when property owners fail to protect outdoor diners and others from errant drivers,” says storefront safety expert Rob Reiter, who co-founded the Storefront Safety Council. “It just takes one crash to end a life—and put a restaurant or small retailer out of business.”
According to the Council:
- Storefront crashes occur more than 100 times per day in the U.S.
- Nearly half (46%) of all storefront crashes result in injury, and 8% result in a fatality.
- Each year in the U.S., as many as 16,000 people are injured and as many as 2,600 are killed in vehicle-into-building crashes.
These figures are based on more than 10 years of data collection by the Council. Its national database of compiled storefront crashes numbers over 24,000 incidents, with additional confirming data on more than 15,000 other vehicle-into-building and related incidents.
Related Stories
| Jun 30, 2014
Arup's vision of the future of rail: driverless trains, maintenance drones, and automatic freight delivery
In its Future of Rail 2050 report, Arup reveals a vision of the future of rail travel in light of trends such as urban population growth, climate change, and emerging technologies.
| Jun 30, 2014
4 design concepts that remake the urban farmer's market
The American Institute of Architects held a competition to solve the farmer's markets' biggest design dilemma: lightweight, bland canopies that although convenient, does not protect much from the elements.
| Jun 30, 2014
Harvard releases the State of the Nation’s Housing 2014
Although the housing industry saw notable increases in construction, home prices, and sales in 2013, household growth has yet to fully recover from the effects of the recession, according to a new Harvard University report.
| Jun 30, 2014
OMA's The Interlace honored as one of the world's most 'community-friendly' high-rises
The 1,040-unit apartment complex in Singapore has won the inaugural Urban Habitat award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which highlights projects that demonstrate a positive contribution to the surrounding environment.
| Jun 30, 2014
Work starts on Jean Nouvel-designed European Patent Office in the Netherlands [slideshow]
With around 80,000 sm and a budget of €205 million self-financed by the EPO, the complex will be one of the biggest office construction sites ever in the Netherlands.
| Jun 30, 2014
Growth of crowdfunding, public-private partnerships among top trends in architecture marketplace
A new report by the American Institute of Architects highlights several emerging trends in the architecture marketplace, including the growth of the P3 project delivery model and designing for health.
| Jun 30, 2014
Report recommends making infrastructure upgrades a cabinet-level priority
The ASCE estimates that $3.6 trillion must be invested by 2020 to make critically needed upgrades and expansions of national infrastructure—and avoid trillions of dollars in lost business sales, exports, disposable income, and GDP.
| Jun 30, 2014
Gen X, not Baby Boomers, spending the most money on homes [infographic]
It turns out that Generation X, who have the highest incomes of the three generations surveyed, are paying the highest home payments and tend to have the largest households.
| Jun 30, 2014
Zaha Hadid's Iraq Parliament complex design marred with controversy
Zaha Hadid's design for the Iraq Parliament was selected, despite placing third in the original RIBA-organized competition.
| Jun 26, 2014
Plans for Britain’s newest landmark brings in international cooperation
Designers of the London Eye will team up with companies from France, the Netherlands and the United States to construct i360 Brighton, the U.K.'s newest observation tower.
