Fotgängares singelolyckor : En studie av halkolyckor i Luleå

In an accessible and attractive winter city inhabitants should be able to move anywhere by foot without feeling insecure due to slipping. The climate along the northern coast of Sweden is expected to become warmer over time, resulting in warmer winters and therefore more days with a high risk of slipping. This thesis explores the phenomenon of slipping in Luleå and tries to answer questions such as where pedestrians slips, how the society could prevent slipping accidents and the pros and cons with the anti-skid methods used today to prevent pedestrians from slipping.To answer these questions, various methods such as interviews, literature reviews, data collection of accident data and measurement of the slope was used to get a wide approach and a bigger understanding of the problem.The thesis showed that neither production managers of Luleå municipality nor the interviewed real estate managers consider that slipping accidents burden them as they hardly get any slipping accidents reported. But the analysis of accident data from the accident database STRADA show that approximately 1200 slipping accidents have occurred in Luleå during the ten years (2003- 2013) studied. The result from this study in Luleå acknowledges earlier research findings in the field and thus showed that more old people than young people slip. More women than men slips and most accidents involve older women. It is also women who have been accountable for most of the health care as a result of the serious injuries they have sustained.The probability that a slipping accident occurs is higher in neighborhoods where there are more pensioners living and where the daytime population is high. The majority of the slipping accidents have occurred along the main street in the city center. Outside the center area the accidents usually occurred around the neighborhood centers and the parking areas next to them. It is in these places most people are moving by foot. But many accidents have also occurred on streets in general and on residential streets where each single homeowner has the responsibility to maintain the walking surface next to his property.Few slipping accidents occurred along the walkways compared to the amount of accidents occurred in district centers. The thesis shows, however, that there is gaps in availability during the winter, as the continuous path between the neighborhoods are not prioritized to maintain. The study also shows that some correlation exists between the number of slipping accidents and the average cross-slope of a path; therefore it is important that no local irregularities should exist along the walkways.Only in Luleå alone the accidents cost between 126-143 million SEK per year. This is approximately four times more than the costs for the whole winter maintenance. Therefore, it is economically justifiable to invest more money in this field, for example by investing in new anti-slip technology and in information-campaigns about the responsibility residents and property owners have. Property owners are also favorable of the idea that the municipality retakes the responsibility to winter maintaining the sidewalks in the downtown area; in order to get a homogeneous quality of the groundwork, and thus perhaps avoid some slipping accidents.One single participant in the community cannot solve the problem of slipping accidents; instead it must be treated from several different directions. In addition to the municipality’s and the individual property owners' responsibility, each individual must take responsibility for what kind of equipment he wears on his feet and where he puts down his feet.Validerat; 20141218 (global_studentproject_submitter