Despite a highly publicized new law to protect pedestrians, the number of people killed in crosswalks has increased 43 percent this year and the state could be on pace to have its highest number of pedestrian traffic deaths in five years.

With six weeks to go in the year, 30 people have been killed while walking along streets and highways, just one short of last year's total of 31 pedestrian deaths, according to statistics compiled by the state Transportation Department. What's more, 10 of the pedestrian deaths have occurred in crosswalks, up from seven for all of 2004.

If the trend continues, the state is likely to again end up with one of the worst pedestrian death rates in the country.

Over the past five years, Hawai'i was ranked seventh in the nation, with an annual average of 2.1 deaths per every 100,000 residents. State Transportation Director Rod Haraga said he's worried Hawai'i might even end up with the highest rate in the nation this year.

The increase in crosswalk fatalities comes despite a law passed this year that was designed to stem the deaths and injuries by giving pedestrians more legal protection.

The law, which went into effect in May, requires drivers to stop rather than yield whenever a pedestrian is in a crosswalk on the driver's side of the road, and could result in fines and fees up to $97 for drivers who fail to stop. In September, Honolulu police launched an aggressive ticketing campaign to help make the public more aware of the new law.

But when four pedestrians were killed within a few days of one another last month, a lot of people were alarmed, including Gov. Linda Lingle. At least three of the four victims were in crosswalks, although it's not clear if all were crossing legally, police said.

"We would like to see these laws tightened up so that this kind of tragic situation never happens again," Lingle said last week. Lingle has not decided what specific changes to seek in the law, spokesman Russell Pang said.

One possible change might be requiring drivers to stop whenever a pedestrian is in any portion of a crosswalk, not just on the driver's side, Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.

While the law is a good start, other measures are needed if the state is going to reduce pedestrian deaths, according to traffic safety advocates who said education and enforcement will play key roles in changing the attitudes of drivers and pedestrians over time.

"You're trying to change behavior and that doesn't happen overnight," said Eric Tash, manager of the state Health Department's Injury Prevention Program. "It's a start when you put something into law, but changing public attitudes is a slow process. Look at drunk driving: It took years before people finally changed their perceptions about it."

In September, Honolulu police began a ramped-up enforcement of the stricter crosswalk law, issuing more than 400 citations to motorists. In the same time period, 954 pedestrians were cited for jaywalking, crossing against the light or other pedestrian offenses, police said.

"I think it's getting better, but there's always some idiot who goes blasting through the intersection," said Helen Eschenbacher, a Kaimuki resident who was struck by a hit-and-run driver last month at she walked in a crosswalk at 18th Street and Kilauea Avenue. It was the second time in three years that she was hit by a car as she walked in an intersection.

"I was walking my dog at 8 in the morning and I was waiting, waiting very carefully for my turn to cross. Then, I was 10 feet from the end of the intersection when two kids in a Honda hit me when they ran through the red light to make a right turn," said Eschenbacher, who suffered serious back and facial injuries.

"The worst part was that I was lying in the road and cars were just driving around me like I was a dead body. I guess there's always going to be people who think the law doesn't apply to them. I'm glad the police are giving tickets, but I think there needs to be a lot more enforcement before people will really pay attention."

In almost 25 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the past five years, the victims were in a crosswalk, and the fault of the accidents has been generally ascribed to pedestrians as well as drivers, according to a recent study by the Health Department. In 53 percent of the cases, the pedestrians were in the roadway erroneously, either crossing against the light or crossing in the middle of the street.

"If you look at a lot of letters to the editor, drivers are blaming pedestrians and vice versa," Ishikawa said. "Everybody's got to follow the rules. The new law was designed to encourage pedestrians to use a crosswalk, but it doesn't mean that the crosswalk is a magic force field of protection."

As originally drafted last year, the law would have required motorists to stop whenever a pedestrian was anywhere in a crosswalk. Worried about situations in which traffic could be brought to a standstill along major roads like King Street or Kamehameha Highway whenever anyone entered a crosswalk, legislators modified the law to its current "halfway through the crosswalk" status.

In its new Hawai'i Injury Prevention Plan, issued this past summer, officials outlined a three-pronged attack to cut the state's pedestrian death rate in half by 2010, Tash said. The plan calls for: