Understanding Pedestrian Crashes
With the support of a TAC Community Road Safety Grant, Victoria Walks commissioned the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) to undertake a detailed analysis of road crashes affecting pedestrians.
The result is probably the most comprehensive picture of pedestrian crashes ever produced in Victoria. MUARC analysed ten years of Police, hospital and cause of death data in addition to a range of other sources to gain the strongest possible understanding of pedestrian crashes.
Notable findings include:
- More than 2,000 pedestrians are admitted or present to hospital Emergency Departments every year.
- Police reported the driver as offending in 46.4% of collisions, while 35.5% were not considered to be offending and for 18.1% this was not known or reported.
- The majority of crashes occurred on roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h (31.0%) or 50 km/h (29.8%).
- Crash rates were higher in the winter months, suggesting there may be an increased risk when it is dark or wet. Nonetheless, most crashes occur in clear weather conditions (82.4%) and during daylight hours (63.6%).
- Pedestrians aged 70 years and older have the greatest risk of injury, roughly 1.6 times higher than people aged 16-39.
- Trends in overall injury rates varied across the data sets. Police reported data showed a decline in crashes, but there was little change in the hospital data.
Find out more:
- Check out our news story with comment from MUARC and Victoria Walks
- Read the report
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