Accidents Involving Pedestrians Walking Along With/Against Traffic: An Evaluation of Crash Characteristics and Injuries

Using A1 A2 police-reported accident data for years 2003 – 2010 in Taiwan, the paper examines anatomic injuries and crash characteristics specific to pedestrians in “facing traffic” and “back to traffic” crashes. There were 2768 and 7558 accidents involving pedestrians walking along with/against traffic respectively. Injuries sustained by pedestrians and crash characteristics in these two crash types were compared with those in other crash types (nearside crash, nearside dart-out crash, offside crash, offside dart-out crash). Main findings include that “back to traffic” crashes resulted in more severe injuries, and pedestrians in “back to traffic” crashes had increased head, neck, and spine injuries than those in other crash types; and there was an elevated risk of head injuries in unlit darkness and NBU (non built-up) roadways. Several crash features (e.g., unlit darkness, overtaking maneuvers, phone use by pedestrians and drivers, intoxicated drivers) appear to be over-involved in “back to traffic” crashes. The implications of the research findings regarding pedestrian/driver education, enforcement, and remedial engineering design are discussed.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Pai, Chih-Wei
  • Jou, Rong-Chang
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash characteristics; Crash data; Crash injuries; Distraction; Drunk driving; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Street lighting; Traffic flow
• Geographic Terms: Taiwan
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01550123
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-0089
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 16 2015 8:29AM