MOSCOW -- On the streets of Russia's capital, it is the loser who ventures out without a weapon.

Once the armament of choice was a small Lada. These days, it's likely to be a 3-ton Mercedes. Yet the dynamics of battle remain the same: The front bumper trumps the pedestrian, who is sent somersaulting over the hood almost every time.

So frequently do automobiles and pedestrians come into contact that a body at the side of the road covered with an overcoat barely draws a crowd. Elderly women, faced with a green crossing light, break into clumsy sprints with the help of their canes; students gather in packs like nervous gazelles before dashing across crosswalks in carefully timed streaks.

Last year, 34,506 people were killed and a quarter of a million injured in road accidents in Russia -- nearly double the rate in the United States. In Moscow alone, more than 14 cars a day hit pedestrians; 300 have died this year.

The urban toll has prompted a rare bout of self-reflection among some drivers and a national campaign to protect the foot-bound. Recently, Moscow traffic police and a coalition of city newspapers began passing out windshield stickers bearing the zebra-crossing symbol of a crosswalk and the words "I Let Pedestrians Pass."

The campaign has elicited a fair amount of grumbling on the part of Moscow drivers, some of whom argue that slowing down for pedestrians puts drivers at risk of being rear-ended by less charitable motorists.

"I would like to be polite and considerate and generous. I would love to let the pedestrian pass by me. But who can guarantee that the back of my car will not be smashed the next minute, if I stop?" said Galina Konova, a Moscow taxi driver. "I may even be doing him a disservice if I let him pass my car, because the other cars will simply speed up and hit him."