Seniors in Hawaii face a greater risk of being struck and killed by a car than in any other state in the nation — a nagging fact that hasn’t changed much in the last decade, according to a report released this week by the National Complete Streets Coalition.

U.S. Sen Brian Schatz said in a statement Tuesday the report underscores the need to make streets safer not just for drivers, but for pedestrians — particularly seniors.

“Too many people in Hawaii, particularly seniors, are being killed or injured every year just walking along our streets. These deaths are preventable,” Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, said.

The report noted that 250 pedestrians were killed statewide from 2005 to 2014, with seniors comprising 42 percent. There was an annual average of nearly five pedestrian fatalities of people 65 and older per 100,000 seniors, more than twice the national average of 2.06 per 100,000.

Barbara Kim Stanton, state director for the AARP, said more needs to be done to improve traffic engineering designs, beef up enforcement and increase awareness.

“We have a terrible pedestrian fatality rate in Hawaii,” Stanton said. “This is not acceptable. … We have to do better.”

Stanton said that while Hawaii has a high percentage of senior citizens, Florida has an even higher number of older people but its rate of pedestrian fatalities is much lower — an annual average of 2.85 per 100,000 seniors.

She said attitudes in Hawaii need to change to look at road safety from a number of perspectives, including those of pedestrians, bicyclists and seniors.

Stanton said that in some communities, the visibility of people crossing the road has been increased by engineering features, such as extending curbs to shorten the distance of crosswalks; or elevating crosswalks to increase visibility and prompt drivers to slow down.

To increase their visibility, Stanton said, pedestrians should wear light clothing and carry a flashlight when walking at night, in the early morning or at dusk.

From 2003 to 2010, Hawaii had the highest pedestrian fatality rate for seniors in the nation, with an annual average of 6.81 deaths per 100,000 seniors, Smart Growth America reported in May 2014.