Recently, a number of surveys in the UK have suggested that children from ethnic minority backgrounds may suffer a disproportionately high pedestrian accident rate relative to majority culture peers. The problem appears particularly to affect children of Asian origin, specifically from the Indian sub-continent (Lawson. 1990; Lawson and Edwards. 1991; Haepers and Pocock, 1993). Unfortunately it is difficult to determine how general these findings might be, as information on ethnic origin does not figure in STATS 19 nor does it constitute a variable in most injury surveillance databases in the UK. In addition, it is no easy matter to disentangle ethnic origin from a range of co-varying social and economic indicators (for example, social class, family income, neighbourhood of residence), all of which are well-known risk factors in the majority culture. It may be that the effect of ethnic origin is fully absorbed by these factors. On the other hand, it may be that the influence of such factors varies from one ethnic group to another, or that additional factors come into play that have little or no influence on the majority culture. In this case, the policy response might also need to vary as a function of ethnic origin. The aim of this report is to explore these issues so far as current data allow; to assess the implications for road safety education; and to make recommendations where further research is required to clarify the scale and nature of the problem in the UK. The specific objectives are as follows: To review the national and international literatures on the relative accident involvement of ethnic minority children in relation to their majority culture peers; Using existing data, to estimate the extent of the problem nationally in the UK; To identify and compare risk factors between different ethnic minority groups and the majority culture; and To identify gaps in our knowledge about the relative risks faced by ethnic minority children when interacting with the traffic environment and to make appropriate recommendations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract