Pedestrian safety - Global Road Safety Partnership

Why is addressing pedestrian safety necessary?
in other situations, if the driver is not concentrating fully on the road ahead or the
road is wet, the opposite will occur.
If a car is travelling unusually fast, other road users such as a pedestrian waiting to cross
the road may misjudge the speed of the approaching vehicle. The pedestrian may mistakenly
assume it is safe to cross the road, attempt to do so and get struck by the vehicle.
Impact speed and pedestrian injury severity
The probability that a pedestrian will be fatally injured if hit by a motor vehicle
increases markedly with impact speed (50,53,54). Research in the 1990s showed that
pedestrians had a 90% chance of surviving car crashes at speeds of 30 km/h or lower,
but less than a 50% chance of surviving impacts at 45 km/h (55). After adjusting for
sampling and statistical analysis bias in that research, a more recent study shows
an adult pedestrian has approximately a 20% risk of dying if struck by a car at
60 km/h (54). It is important to note that this risk analysis is a work in progress and
has not yet been corroborated by other researchers but the undisputed issue is that
speed is an important risk factor for pedestrian injury and that impacts of above
30 km/h increase the likelihood of severe injury or death.
Impact speed is influenced by travelling speed and braking. Most speed is lost in the last
few metres of braking, so that when a car travelling at 40 km/h has stopped, a car that
was travelling at 50 km/h is still travelling at 41 km/h. Thus, a difference of 10 km/h in
initial travelling speed can result in a difference of 41 km/h in impact speed.
Factors influencing vehicle speed reveal how the interaction between the vehicle, road
environment and road user create risks for pedestrians. The key aspects include (7):
• driver-related factors (age, sex, alcohol level, number of people in the vehicle);
• road- and vehicle-related factors (road layout, surface quality, vehicle power,
maximum speed); and
• traffic- and environment-related factors (traffic density and composition,
prevailing speed, weather conditions).
© Virot, WHO
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