Ten years of pedestrian and cyclist accident data (1981-90) reported to police were extracted from the accident database. Over the period there were 5906 casualty accidents involving pedestrians and 4931 involving cyclists. School-aged pedestrian casualties accounted for 28 per cent of all pedestrian casualties and school-aged cyclist casualties accounted for 48 per cent of all cyclist casualties. More males than females were involved in traffic accidents. This was more pronounced for cyclists than pedestrians; 79 per cent of cyclist and 60 per cent of pedestrian casualties were males. Accidents involving males were found to be more severe than those involving females. After adjustment for number of hours of cycling, males were found to be 2.2 times more likely to be involved in casualty accidents than females. Child cyclists aged 5 to 8 years and 13 to 16 years were more likely to be involved in traffic accidents than children aged 9 to 12 years. The majority of fatalities, 64 per cent of pedestrian and 87 per cent of cyclist fatalities, occurred outside the time periods children travelled to/from school. Accidents on roads surrounding schools accounted for 25 per cent of all casualties that occurred during the time children travel to/from school. However, about 90 per cent of all school-aged child pedestrian casualties occurred on locations other than roads adjacent to schools. (A)
Abstract