An estimated 188,000 pedestrian accidents are reported each year involving about 8000 fatalities. The peak age group for pedestrian fatalities includes children aged 4-8, but there is a strong second peak among youth aged 16-21. Males are two-and-a-half times as likely as females to be killed in pedestrian accidents. This study used police-reported pedestrian accidents in New York State for 1978-79 and in Pennsylvania for 1979 to try to identify vehicle factors which relate to the severity or body location of pedestrian injury. It was found that large trucks, pickups, and vans are more likely to kill the pedestrian than are passenger cars, but within passenger cars there was no direct relationship between vehicle weight and injury severity. In a detailed comparison of passenger car front-end configurations the most meaningful finding was a decrease in child injury severity with a greater horizontal slope from the bumper edge to the above-bumper contact point. Further study of this and other front-end styling variations need to be tested under controlled conditions in the laboratory.
Abstract