The traditional approach to the prevention of child pedestrian injuries in New Zealand is pedestrian education. However, none of the programs currently being implemented in New Zealand have ever been shown to reduce injury rates. The allocation of scare resources to pedestrian education must therefore be questioned. In this paper the authors estimate the number of serious child pedestrian injuries which might be prevented if the resources allocated to pedestrian education were allocated instead to environmental approaches, in particular, to traffic calming. It is estimated that approximately 18 hospitalisations of child pedestrians could be prevented each year under this alternative resource allocation, disregarding any other benefits of traffic calming. These results emphasise the need to consider the potential sacrifices involved in the allocation of scare resources to child pedestrian education.
Samenvatting