Traffic violence reporting is predictable. Probably 90% of crash reports are nothing more than same- or next-day rewrites of brief police news releases. It’s understandable. Driver hits pedestrian isn’t a unique story. Nor is it one that generates journalistic awards.

Police news releases offer few details and often include some that are prejudicial, suggesting blame before a thorough investigation is completed (which usually takes at least 30 days and often months longer). A dead pedestrian wearing dark clothing at night indicts himself with most readers, despite what the motorist may have done.

But there are opportunities in these tragic stories for journalists to help the public understand the nature of road mayhem and perhaps better advocate for effective reforms.

That requires thematic stories, as opposed to episodic ones that relay only the basics. A thematic report offers information that suggests how road users and street design can be safer.

Sometimes putting a crash in perspective can be as simple as including statistics, such as the trend of pedestrian or cyclist deaths, or highlighting that the crash scene is a particularly dangerous stretch of road. Newsrooms should (and probably do) have such information at hand.

But just as often a glance at an online map is even better.

A couple of months ago, a pedestrian was killed crossing U.S. 19 in Pasco County. The tragedy offered opportunities to highlight larger problems. A photo of the intersection confirms by law an unmarked but designated crosswalk. When a pedestrian is in that crosswalk, motorists, again by law, must yield. How many people know that?

And the intersection is dangerous by design. Pedestrians must cross three lanes of traffic in each direction, with a speed limit of 55 mph and a tiny refuge island in the middle. The closest signaled intersection is 300 yards away.

Mentioning these road design facts with the largely unknown pedestrian law would elevate this story from one of “pedestrian makes a dumb decision” to one where we can appreciate the victim’s dilemma and perhaps be more sympathetic to calls for redesigning our roads.

In a recent story about a motorcyclist’s death all we know from the story is that the two drivers “entered the intersection at the same time and collided.” Given how many people think motorcyclists are reckless daredevils, they might presume he was at fault. A quick look at the intersection on Google’s Street View, however, reveals that the car driver had a stop sign and the motorcyclist didn’t.

In another story, all we’re told is “(t)he dump truck entered the intersection traveling westbound on Ringling Boulevard. At that point, the bicyclist and dump truck collided.” But it was not a normal intersection but rather a traffic circle. What if the reporter included a sentence like this: “Police did not say if they determined who had the right of way. The Florida Driver handbook states that ‘drivers entering the roundabout must yield to traffic already in the circle.’” That’s information many drivers don’t know.

A few weeks ago, a pedestrian was killed, and the headline blared “Hudson man struck, killed by van while walking along road’s travel lane.” The 81-word story adds that “The van then struck the victim, who was in its path….” Many folks may think, “that rube got what he deserved walking in the motorist’s ‘path.’” A satellite map reveals that there are no sidewalks or even graded shoulders on the road. There is nowhere else to walk but in the travel lane. The story doesn’t tell us exactly where the motorist and pedestrian were at the time of the crash. Pedestrians are allowed to walk along a road with no sidewalks and should face traffic as they do, according to Fla. Statute 316.130, which also states that “every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian.” So who’s at fault here?

Local news operations are stretched thin these days. But checking online maps takes mere minutes, and the information they reveal can help us all become more informed and hopefully more engaged citizens regarding our escalating traffic violence trend.

Robert Griendling is a member of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Bicycling and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and a former president of the St. Petersburg Bicycle Club.