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SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE TRAUMA OF PEDESTRIANS INVOLVED IN ROAD ACCIDENTS
Author(s) -
Hall R. R.,
Fisher A. J.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1972.tb46799.x
Subject(s) - pedestrian , incidence (geometry) , case fatality rate , injury prevention , accident (philosophy) , medicine , poison control , demography , forensic engineering , medical emergency , geography , environmental health , transport engineering , engineering , mathematics , population , philosophy , geometry , epistemology , sociology
Pedestrian accident data, recorded in general police accident procedure in N.S.W., have been analysed for the one year, 1968. Whilst pedestrians were involved in only 5.5% of all reported accidents, they contributed 13.5% of those injured and 24% of the fatalities. An analysis of some of the factors involved has shown that when a pedestrian is struck by a car, he or she will receive on average two injuries. These injuries will most likely be to the limbs, especially the legs, and to the head: in 1 out of 20 cases these injuries will prove fatal. It has also shown that the incidence of fatality rises sharply with pedestrians above the age of 50 years, and that whilst some motor vehicles with different specific design features may be associated with different patterns of injury, the incidence of fatality appears to be related to general frontal styling, i.e., shape and height. Furthermore, the severity of trauma rises sharply above car speeds of 20 miles per hour.