The fatality and injury risk of light truck impacts with pedestrians in the United States
Introduction
In 2000, 4739 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in the United States (NHTSA, 2001). As the number of light trucks and vans (LTVs) on US highways continues to increase, a new area of concern regarding pedestrian safety has emerged. With dramatically different size, shape, and stiffness than passenger cars, LTVs may pose a more serious risk of injury and fatality for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians.
As shown in Fig. 1, sales of LTVs between 1980 and 1999 have grown from 20% to almost 50% of all light passenger vehicles sold (Automotive News, 1980-1999). With such a profound change in the fleet of United States vehicles, it is important to investigate the safety repercussions on motorists and pedestrians. Several studies have shown that LTVs are incompatible with cars in LTV-to-car collisions (Summers et al., 2001, Gabler and Hollowell, 1998, Gabler and Hollowell, 2000, Joksch, 2000, IIHS, 1998). In fatal LTV-to-car collisions, estimates are that 81% of the fatally injured occupants are in the car. Uninvestigated however is how the growing fleet of LTVs may affect the safety risk for pedestrians.
Section snippets
Objective
This study examines the effect of striking vehicle type on pedestrian fatalities and injuries in vehicle–pedestrian impacts. The study is based on an analysis of US traffic accident statistics from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) General Sampling System (GES), and the NASS Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS). By combining these three databases, this paper compares and contrasts the impact risk factor for pedestrians struck by light
Approach
For the purposes of this study, only accidents involving single vehicle interaction with pedestrians were examined. Accidents in which multiple vehicles struck a pedestrian were excluded as in these cases it is unclear which vehicle to associate with the pedestrian’s injury. Similarly, cases of multiple vehicles striking multiple pedestrians were excluded. When a single vehicle struck multiple pedestrians, each pedestrian was counted as a separate case. As shown in Table 1, this approach did
Pedestrian fatality trends
To determine pedestrian fatality trends, FARS 1991–2000 data were analyzed. In 2000, 4739 pedestrians were fatally injured—an 18% decrease from 1991. Fig. 2 shows the overall trend in pedestrian fatalities from 1991 to 2000. When separated by vehicle type and restricted to single vehicle collisions, Fig. 3 shows the decrease in fatalities occurs mainly in the passenger car category. Although pedestrian fatalities resulting from car impacts decreased by 32% from 1991 to 2000, the number of
Conclusions
This paper has examined the effect of striking vehicle type on pedestrian fatalities and injuries in frontal impacts. The study was based on an analysis of US traffic accident statistics from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the General Sampling System (GES), and the NASS Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS). Analysis of these three databases has clearly demonstrated that pedestrians have a substantially greater likelihood of dying when struck by an LTV than when struck by a car.
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