Copyright © NISC Pty Ltd JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY IN AFRICA ISSN 1433–0237

In certain countries, especially developing ones, walking is a daily routine for the less well-to-do and is sometimes even the only means of connection between certain remote areas. However, even though walking is the principal mode of transportation, one is forced to agree in the light of the num-ber and severity of accidents involving pedestrians, that per-sons using this means of locomotion are still at considerable risk. Conflicts and collisions between pedestrians and other users of the roads and streets (motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists) are frequent, although a decrease has been noted in some of the world’s more developed countries (Fontaine, Gourlet and Ziani 1995, Keall 1995). Statistics show that pedestrians are in fact the most vulnerable population of road users. In France, a little more than 13 % of the persons killed on the road in 1994 were pedestrians (Roche 1995). In Sweden, nearly a quarter of the road accidents involve a person on foot (Gärder 1989). The most exposed and most vulnerable pedestrian groups appear to be children under 10 and persons over 60 (Bezzaoucha 1988, Christoffel, Schofer, Jovanis, Brandt, White and Tanz 1986, Keall 1995, Stevenson and Sleet 1997). The figures are all the more worrisome in developing countries. In Madras, India, for example, 45 % of road-accident victims are pedestrians and nearly a quarter of these victims are children under 16 (Victor 1990). In Abidjan (Ivory Coast), pedestrians almost always represent 2/3 of the injured and 3/4 of the deaths from car accidents (BCEOM–ONSER–SCETIVOIRE 1984, Kouabenan 1996). Various studies devoted to characterizing pedestrian accidents and setting forth some hypotheses regarding thei