Towards Zero Pedestrian Trauma: Literature Review and Serious Casualty Analysis

Pedestrian crashes alone constitute a substantial proportion of all road deaths world-wide. In Victoria, the number of pedestrian fatalities increased from 41 in 2007 to 59 in 2008. Given the increasing trend of pedestrian fatalities it is an opportune time to review current approaches and develop a new suite of innovative ways to take the next major step forward to eliminating serious pedestrian trauma. A key initial aim of the present study was to understand the contributing behavioural and environmental factors and their role in pedestrian crash and injury risk in Victoria from 2004 to 2008. This paper presents two major components of a larger study and includes, i) a review of the Australian and international literature spanning the past five years in combination, and ii) detailed analyses of pedestrian crashes in Victoria.