Police road accident data from Great Britain for 1990-2009 were analyzed. RRNF is the risk of a casualty occurring in the first half of road crossing, the half nearest to the pedestrian's starting position at the roadside, compared to the risk of it occurring in the second half. Children and younger adult pedestrians had a high relative risk of being killed or seriously injured in the nearside of the road (RRNF). RRNF decreased with age, for men and women, but rose again for people aged over 85 years. It was also substantially lower for children under 10 years old. Three possible explanations for lifespan changes in RRNF were evaluated: that change results from slower walking speeds, from a specific failure to attend to the far side before beginning to cross, or from generalized attention control failure. Young people's higher RRNF is consistent with evidence that they are prone to generalized attention control failures. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract