PEDESTRIANS IN REAL-WORLD COLLISIONS

The University of Western Ontario Accident Research Team investigated motor vehicle collisions resulting in a personal injury (PI) or fatality (F). Injury and collision data were analyzed for 198 injury-producing passenger car or light truck/van collisions with pedestrians (96 F; 102 PI). The majority of the fatal collisions occurred on roadways, often when pedestrians were crossing or walking along the travel lanes. In contrast, the majority of the personal injury cases occurred at intersections. Elderly pedestrians were found to be over-represented in the fatal cases in comparison with the personal injury cases. Fatal pedestrian collisions at night were found to be over-represented in comparison with the representative PI cases. In more than 90% of the fatal cases pedestrians were struck by the front of the vehicles and they had either wrapped around the front end onto the hood or projected forward and struck the ground. The wrap trajectory was more frequent in the passenger car collisions, and the forward projection was more frequent in the light truck/van collisions. If there was vehicle damage resulting from the impact it almost always meant serious injury or fatality. Body contacts causing injury were typically to the hood or hood edge, roof rail, A-pillar, windshield, bumper, and ground. The head was the body region most often seriously injured, with more than 80% of all fatally injured pedestrians suffering a head injury of AIS score 2 or greater. In the PI cases, the injured pedestrians most frequently sustained integumentary injuries of AIS score 1 with injuries to the lower extremities or head typically being AIS score 2 or greater.