Pedestrian Injuries

Pedestrian Injuries

The Problem

In 1999, nearly 5,000 pedestrians died from traffic-related injuries and another 85,000 sustained nonfatal injuries

Children 15 and younger accounted for 12% of all pedestrian fatalities and 32% of all nonfatal pedestrian injuries.
People 65 and older accounted for 22% of all pedestrian deaths and approximately 8% of nonfatal pedestrian injuries. The pedestrian death rate for this age group is higher than for any other age group.
The pedestrian fatality rate is more than twice as high for men as for women.
Hit-and-run incidents account for one out of five pedestrian deaths.
In 1999, approximately one-third of pedestrians 14 and older who were killed by a motor vehicle were intoxicated, with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.10% or more.

CDC's Accomplishments

Strategies to improve child pedestrian safety
CDC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the National SAFE KIDS Campaign co-sponsored a meeting of experts to discuss barriers and potential solutions to the problem of child pedestrian injuries. This group—the Panel to Prevent Pedestrian Injuries—consisted of nearly 100 experts from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia and represented more than 25 professions, including city planning, motor vehicle safety, public health, child development, school safety, health education, and engineering. The product of the meeting, National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety, was published in October 2001. The strategies will guide national and community efforts to increase safety for our nation's youngest pedestrians.

Investigating a high-risk area
In 1999, CDC staff investigated why the pedestrian death rate in metro Atlanta had increased between 1994 and 1998 while the national rate decreased. Their findings led to several recommendations to improve pedestrian safety. These ranged from engineering interventions such as separating pedestrians from traffic (e.g., sidewalks) and traffic-calming measures (e.g., speed bumps, lower speed limits), to safer ways to cross the street and improved street lighting. CDC staff also recommended educating both drivers and passengers about the dangers of exiting a vehicle in traffic and increasing awareness of the Highway Emergency Response Operator (HERO) program, designed to assist stranded motorists. Other strategies included raising awareness about the risks of injury to pedestrians who have been drinking and more strictly enforcing driving laws.

Understanding community characteristics
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are studying community characteristics that may affect interventions to prevent child pedestrian injuries. They are comparing four neighborhoods that vary by both risk of pedestrian injury and median household income to assess—

Environmental characteristics, such as traffic patterns, roadways, and play areas;
Parents' perceptions of risk;
Parents' knowledge of and willingness to support environmental changes and other pedestrian safety programs;
Level of parental supervision;
Amount and patterns of walking by children in the community;
Injury experiences of child pedestrians.

Data from this CDC-funded study will help researchers and practitioners identify potential strategies to reduce injury risks
among child pedestrians, as well as barriers against such efforts. Results of this project can help guide development of safety interventions for child pedestrians in similar communities.

Future Steps

To improve pedestrian safety, we must continue to engage the efforts of many diverse groups and encourage development, implementation, and evaluation
of a variety of strategies to prevent pedestrian injuries, including:

Strategies to improve road-sharing and to separate pedestrians from traffic;
Pedestrian safety education programs;
Traffic-calming measures such as roundabouts and speed bumps;
Enforcement strategies, such as red light cameras and ways to stop drivers from illegally passing school buses.

We must also find effective ways to educate parents and drivers about children's developmental abilities to interact safely with traffic.

Just The Facts: Child Pedestrians: A High-Risk Group

Children are at increased risk for pedestrian injuries for several reasons:

Their smaller size makes them difficult for drivers to see, especially if they are standing between parked cars on the side of the road.
Because young children are often unable to judge distances and vehicle speeds accurately, they can easily misjudge whether it is safe to cross a street.
Parents can over-estimate their children's ability to cross the street. Many elementary school-aged children don't understand traffic signals and don't know how to anticipate drivers' actions.
Drivers and child pedestrians each assume (incorrectly) that the other will yield the right-of-way.

Just The Facts: Different People, Different Risks

Certain racial and ethnic groups are at increased risk for pedestrian injuries. Compared with the pedestrian fatality rate for whites—

The fatality rate for Hispanics is 1.8 times higher;
The rate for African Americans is nearly twice as high;
The rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives is close to three times as high.

Researchers believe that the differences in rates are due, in part, to differences in walking patterns and frequency of walking. For example, the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, conducted in 1995 by the Department of Transportation, found that African Americans walk 82% more than whites. Environmental and socioeconomic factors are also likely to contribute to these rate differences.

This page last reviewed July17, 2002

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National Center for Injury Prevention and Control