1 SOCIAL CONTEXT AS DETERMINANT OF BOYS ACCIDENTS IN ROAD TRAFFIC IN BELÉM CITY-

Thousands of Brazilian children die or suffer physical injuries from traffic accidents. In Brazil it is easy to watch road traffic violations and there is a lot of violence both in the cities and in the country, as a result from this social context. Because the aim of this investigation was to identify behavioral factors present at the time of accident, 20 boys, 5 to 10 years old who were hit by cars, were studied. Although an attempt to obtain representative samples for each socio-economic level has been made, it was not possible to get them; an extensive review of medical and police records indicated that 95 % of these cases were from low-income families. Subsequently, the data were obtained from the subjects, their parents, witnesses and drivers. Interviews, questionnaires, and various instruments were used in order to reconstruct the scenario, and to provide a fuller description of high-risk behaviors emitted by the subjects. The results indicated that 1) lower-income boys, due to their poor living conditions, were more exposed to high-risk traffic conditions, and hence more likely to be hit. More specifically, the following aspects were characteristic of accident causality