Analysis of pedestrian road traffic crashes and injuries in Chongqing

Abstract

Objeetive To analyze traffic accidents involving pedestrians in Chongqing from 2000 to 2006 so as to understand injury characteristics of the pedestrians. Methods The data of pedestrian traffic crashes and injuries in three districts including one district in downtown,one in suburb and one in county of Chongqing from 2000 to 2006 were collected from road traffic crash and traffic injury database to analyze severity of crashes,casualties,action and location of pedestrians in crashes. Results The crashes led to 7 934 pedestrian injuries (24.74％) and 867 pedestrian deaths (49.46％).Intensity of the pedestrian crashes in rural areas was higher than that in downtowns and suburbs.Of all pedestrian casualties,57.91％ were due to illegally crossing the driveway,and 15.43％ of the casualties were on the crosswalk.Most of the casualties occurred on the main roads,the third class highways and second main roads in Chongqing.But serious crashes occurred on the first and second class highways and substandard highways,which led to average 3.17,4.13 and 5.42 deaths,respectively.Pedestrians accounting for 52.46％ of the total severe injuries were more than the proportion among the minor to moderate injuries.Head injuries were the most common for the pedestrians and chest injuries were also usual among the severe injuries. Conclusions The intensity of pedestrian crashes is higher than that of other crashes,especially in rural areas.It should be noticed that the main injuries of the pedestrians are head injuries,which is mainly resulted from illegally crossing driveway.It is worth noticing that a rather high proportion of pedestrians are impaired on the crosswalks,indicating that we should pay more attention to protect right of the pedestrians on the crosswalks during transportation law enforcement and safety education in the future. Key words: Accidents, traffic; Traffic safety; Pedestrian