Vehicle Interactions with Pedestrians

Abstract

Motor vehicle collisions resulted in 5,307 pedestrian fatalities in the United States during 1997.1 Although this number has fallen over 20% from nearly 7,000 in 1988 as shown in Fig. 22.1, pedestrian fatalities are still a significant problem, accounting for 13% of the nation’s total traffic fatalities. This problem is even larger in many other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom, where nearly 30% of traffic fatalities are pedestrians. Other nonoccupants such as motorcyclists and pedal cyclists account for an additional 30% of traffic fatalities in Japan and 15% in the United Kingdom.2