Accidents involving pedestrians with their backs to traffic or facing traffic: an evaluation of crash characteristics and injuries

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper examines pedestrian anatomical injuries and crash characteristics in back-to-traffic and facingtraffic crashes. Pedestrian crashes involving pedestrians walking along streets (i.e. with their backs to traffic or facing traffic) have been overlooked in literature. Although this is not the most frequent type of crash, the crash consequence to pedestrians is a safety concern. Combining Taiwan A1A2 police-reported accident data and data from the National Health Insurance Database from years 2003-2013, this paper examines anatomical injuries and crash characteristics in back-to-traffic and facing-traffic crashes. There were a total of 830 and 2267 pedestrian casualties in back-to-traffic and facing-traffic crashes respectively. The injuries sustained by pedestrians and crash characteristics of these two crash types were compared with those of other crossing types of crashes (nearside crash, nearside dart-out crash, offside crash, and offside dart-out crash). Odds of various injuries to body regions were estimated using logistic regressions. Key findings include that the percentage of fatalities in back-to-traffic crashes is the highest; logistic models reveal that pedestrians in back-to-traffic crashes sustained more head, neck, and spinal injuries than did pedestrians in other crash types, and unlit darkness and non-built-up roadways were associated with an increased risk of pedestrian head injuries. Several crash features (e.g. unlit darkness, overtaking manoeuvres, phone use by pedestrians and drivers, and intoxicated drivers) are more frequently evident in back-to-traffic crashes than in other types of crashes. The current research suggests that in terms of crash consequence, facing traffic is safer than back to traffic.

Population-based case–control study of the effect of sun glare on pedestrian fatalities in Taiwan

“…Studies have reported that facing traffic is beneficial for preventing pedestrian crashes27 and reducing the severity of related injuries 25. Our study complements these studies by concluding that walking against traffic is associated with decreased injury severity.…”

“…Considerable work has concluded that older pedestrians are more likely to be fatally or severely injured in crashes, both during daytime and night conditions 25. Our research provides ample evidence to suggest that injuries sustained by older pedestrians in crashes caused by sun glare are more likely to be fatal than those sustained by younger pedestrians.…”

A population-based case-control study of hospitalisation due to head injuries among bicyclists and motorcyclists in Taiwan

“…A thorough description of the National Traffic Accident Dataset can be found in the study by Chen et al . 22 …”

Risk of 30-day mortality and its association with alcohol concentration level among driver victims of motor vehicle crashes: comparison of population- and hospital-based designs

“…After a road traffic accident is made known to the police, certified police accident investigators examine the accident scene and complete accident reports, which comprise information relevant to the MVC. 11 The NHI data were retrieved from Taiwan’s NHI programme, which is implemented and supervised by the National Health Insurance Administration that also performs quarterly expert reviews on random samples of medical claims to ensure the accuracy of such claims. 12 This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of National Cheng Kung University Hospital (No.…”