Analysis of 121 fatal passenger car-adult pedestrian accidents in China

doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2014.08.003

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

Volume 27, October 2014, Pages 76-81

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2014.08.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

To study the characteristics of fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents in China，a team was established and passenger car-pedestrian crash cases occurring between 2006 and 2011 in Beijing and Chongqing, China were collected. A total of 121 fatal passenger car-adult pedestrian collisions were sampled and analyzed. The pedestrian injuries were scored according to Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS). The demographical distributions of fatal pedestrian accidents differed from other pedestrian accidents. Among the victims, no significant discrepancy in the distribution of ISS and AIS in head, thorax, abdomen, and extremities by pedestrian age was found, while pedestrian behaviors prior to the crashes may affect the ISS. The distributions of AIS in head, thorax, and abdomen among the fatalities did not show any association with impact speeds or vehicle types, whereas there was a strong relationship between the ISS and impact speeds. Whether pedestrians died in the accident field or not was not associated with the ISS or AIS. The present results may be useful for not only forensic experts but also vehicle safety researchers. More investigations regarding fatal pedestrian accidents need be conducted in great detail.

Introduction

With the rise in global urbanization and motorization, road traffic accidents (RTAs) induced injuries have become major worldwide public health problems. According to a report by World Health Organization,¹ over 1.2 million people died from RTAs each year in the world and about 50 million were injured. It was predicated that the injuries related to RTAs will rise to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.¹ Pedestrians, as one of the most vulnerable road users, are accounted for a very high proportion of fatalities involved in RTAs around the world. For example, in the developed countries with high incomes, typically 10–30% of fatalities related to RTAs are pedestrians. Meanwhile, substantially higher pedestrian fatal proportions were reported in the other countries with middle or low-incomes, despite the figures are underestimated.¹

For experts in forensic medicine, the analysis of causes of injuries or deaths from RTAs has become a very important part of their daily work.2, 3, 4 Few studies have been performed to investigate the characters of fatal pedestrian accidents, especially for the middle and low income countries, e.g. China, although fatal pedestrian accidents occur very frequently in these countries.¹ It has been suggested that pedestrian injuries can provide evidential value for reconstruction of pedestrian-vehicle accidents at the moment of collision,⁵ and that pedestrian injuries maybe a further evaluation index to reconstruct car-to-pedestrian collision.⁶ In the authors’ point of view, the injuries sustained by the pedestrians need to be studied in detail from fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions to reconstruct the collisions.

To date, a large number of pedestrian accidents have been investigated worldwide, especially for some developed countries. It has been accepted that real-world vehicle-pedestrian collision data may provide first-hand information about patterns, causation, risk factors of accidents, and valuable background for decreasing pedestrian injuries and deaths.⁷ The data are important not only to legal medical experts to validate the vehicle-pedestrian crash reconstruction, but also to researchers to develop the techniques to reduce or prevent such crashes.⁸ However, limited research was focused on fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents in the countries with middle or low incomes.

Nowadays, pedestrian accident databases with detailed information related to crashes and injuries are available for a small number of developed countries. Such databases include the International Harmonization Research Activity (IHRA) dataset in Japan,⁹ the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS),¹⁰ the United States Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS),¹¹ and the Australian database.¹² There is still a great demand for accident data from developing countries because of their unique circumstances, e.g. lack of comprehensive, well-documented dataset, as well as difficulty accessing existing data,¹³ although some investigations regarding pedestrian-accident crashes have been performed from the collected in-depth vehicle-pedestrian data at a regional level in China.14, 15 As an extension of these studies, this paper aims to address the characters of fatal pedestrian accidents by analyzing a large number of recent fatal vehicle-pedestrian crashes in multi areas.

Section snippets

Methods

A team, consisting of engineers and medical experts, has been found since 2006 in the Institute of Surgery, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China. The team, cooperating with police departments, collected onsite passenger car-pedestrian accident cases occurring between 2006 and 2011 in Beijing, Northern China, which are characterized by a flat area, and Chongqing, Southern China, which is characterized by mountainous regions. The accident-related information included the data of

Results

A total of 121 fatal passenger car-pedestrian crashes meeting the inclusion criteria were chosen. Among the sampled accidents, 26 (21%) cases occurred in Beijing, and 95 (79%) in Chongqing. For the accidents, 108 (89%) occurred under nice weather conditions, and 83 (69%) occurred in urban roads, while 34 (28%) in highway. It was shown that 29% of fatal pedestrian accidents occurred in highways in Chongqing, which have a higher probability than those in Beijing (p = 0.021), as exhibited in Fig. 1

Discussion

Pedestrians accounted for a substantial portion of the overall road traffic injuries, and the high portion of worldwide road user fatalities were pedestrians hit by vehicles.¹ Furthermore, it was proposed that pedestrian injuries and deaths will increase abruptly as the rapid growth of motorization level in some developing countries.¹ Although numerous studies regarding vehicle-pedestrian crashes have been performed to prevent pedestrian injuries from collisions in advanced countries as well as

Limitations

Although some characters of fatal pedestrian accidents from 121 cases in the sampled areas have been analyzed in the present study, some limitations still exist for this study. Compared to 21,106 pedestrian deaths in China in 2007, a total of 121 vehicle-pedestrian crash cases collected from 2006 to 2011 only represented a limited portion. Additionally, fatal accidents in only two areas were collected, which may not represent the national wide China. The number of vehicle-pedestrian accidents

Conclusion

A total of 121 fatal passenger car-adult pedestrian accidents were sampled and analyzed in the current study. The results showed that the demographical distribution of fatal pedestrian accidents differed from other pedestrian accidents reported previously. On the urban road, 63% of fatal accidents occurred at impact speeds within 40–69 km/h. Among these fatal pedestrians, no discrepancy of ISS and AIS distribution in head, thorax, abdomen, and extremities were found by pedestrian age, while

Ethical approval

None declared.

Funding

None declared.

Conflict of interest

None to declare.

Acknowledgments

The work was sponsored in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81072504, 31170908) and the Open Foundation by State Key Lab (NVHSKL-2010001). We thank the police departments of Chongqing for their help in vehicle-pedestrian crash data sampling. We also thank Dr. Feng Zhu in Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA, for the hard work in revising the grammar of this manuscript.

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Analysis of 121 fatal passenger car-adult pedestrian accidents in China

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Methods

Results

Discussion

Limitations

Conclusion

Ethical approval

Funding

Conflict of interest

Acknowledgments

J Forensic Leg Med

J Forensic Leg Med

J Forensic Leg Med

Forensic Sci Int

Accid Anal Prev

J Forensic Leg Med

Accid Anal Prev

Accid Anal Prev

Global status report on road safety: time for action

Toward designing pedestrian-friendly vehicles

Summary of IHRA pedestrian safety WG activities (2005) – proposed test methods to evaluate pedestrian protection afforded by passenger cars

Influence of impact speed on head and brain injury outcome in vulnerable road user impacts to the car hood

Stapp Car Crash J

A field data analysis of risk factors affecting the injury risks in vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes

Ann Adv Automot Med

In-depth accident study 1975-1979, part 1: an overview. Road accident research unit

In-depth analysis of pedestrian crashes in Riyadh

Traffic Inj Prev

Investigation of 184 passenger car–pedestrian accidents

Int J Crashworthiness

The abbreviated injury scale-2005 revision

A comparative study between China and IHRA for the vehicle-pedestrian impact