Children at risk: A comparison of child pedestrian traffic collisions in Santiago, Chile, and Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

Objective: We examine and compare pedestrian-vehicle collisions and injury outcomes involving school-age children between 5 and 18 years of age in the capital cities of Santiago, Chile and Seoul, South Korea. Methods:We conduct descriptive analysis of the child pedestrian-vehicle collision (P-VC) data (904 collisions for Santiago, and 3,505 for Seoul) reported by the police between 2010 and 2011. We also statistically analyze factors associated with child P-VCs, both by incident severity and age group using three regression models: negative binomial, probit, and spatial lag models.Results: Descriptive statistics suggest that child pedestrians in Seoul have a higher risk of being involved in traffic crashes than their counterparts in Santiago. However, in Seoul a greater proportion of children are unharmed as a result of these incidents, while more child pedestrians are killed in Santiago. Younger children in Seoul suffer more injuries from P-VCs than in Santiago. The majority of P-VCs in both cities tend to occur in the afternoon and evening, at intersections in Santiago and at midblock locations in Seoul. Our model results suggest that the resident population of children is positively associated with P-VCs in both cities, and school concentrations apparently increase P-VC risk among older children in Santiago. Bus stops are associated with higher P-VCs in Seoul, while subway stations relate with higher P-VCs among older children in Santiago. Zone-level land use mix was negatively related to child P-VCs in Seoul, but not in Santiago. Arterial roads are associated with fewer P-VCs, especially for younger children in both cities. A share of collector roads is associated with increased P-VCs in Seoul, but fewer PVCs in Santiago. Hilliness is related to fewer P-VCs in both cities. Differences in these model results for Santiago and Seoul warrant additional analysis as do the differences in results across model type (Negative Binomial versus Spatial Lag models). Conclusions:To reduce child P-VCs, this study suggests the need to assess: subway station and bus stop area conditions in Santiago and Seoul, respectively; areas with high density of schools in Santiago; areas with greater concentrations of children in both cities; and collector roads in Seoul.

Proceedings of the 2023 Australasian Road Safety Conference - Cairns, Queensland, Australia

“…Dhaka also has the highest number of educational institutions, making the dangerous practice of jaywalking on these roads common. Research on this issue (pedestrian safety and behavioir) has been conducted in Israel (Meir et al, 2015), India (Avinash et al, 2020), South Korea (Blazquez et al, 2016), and Qatar (Shaaban et al, 2018). However, there is limited research on this issue in Bangladesh.…”

Investigating the Risk Factors Associated with Injury Severity in Pedestrian Crashes in Santiago, Chile

“…People walk on average 0.67 km every day to commute to work, and 19% of these inhabitants walk more than 1 km to reach a specific destination [ 12 ]. Although sidewalks are abundant, the majority of major road infrastructure favors automobile users, making pedestrian infrastructure in some places inhospitable and disrupted [ 13 ]. Thus, pedestrian safety is a critical concern.…”

The Association between Comorbidities and Comorbid Injuries on Treatment Outcome in Pediatric and Elderly Patients with Injuries in Korea: An Observational Study

“…Accordingly, there has been extensive research on this topic; however, most of these studies were exclusively conducted on specific age groups, including children aged 0-5 years or 0-12 years [25][26][27] and older adults aged ≥65 years [28][29][30]. Moreover, even studies on both pediatric and elderly injuries generally focused on a specific injury [31,32]; injury mortality; or injuries from a specific cause, including traffic accidents [33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”