Pedestrian Accidents in Arizona: An Investigation of Causative Factor and Recommendation for Safety Improvements: Volume 2: Final Report

US Transportation Collection1985PDFTech ReportMatthias, J. S.Stonex, A.Arizona. Department of TransportationArizona State University. Center for Advanced Research in TransportationArizona. Department of TransportationArizonaPedestrian vehicle crashesPedestrian safetyCrash causesCountermeasuresStatisticsIndian reservationsCrash ratesCrash analysisFHWA/AZ-84/210FHWA/AZ-84/210-IIHPR 1-25(210)Final report; May 1984-May 1985This research investigated the causes of pedestrian accidents in Arizona to discover why Arizona's pedestrian accident rate if higher than the national average. All pedestrian accidents for 1981, 1982, and 1983 that were computerized in the state accident report system were examined. All accidents (37,784) that could be located (2.6% could not be located) were plotted by location and reported cause. Accident rates for urban areas were higher than for rural areas. The only identified pattern was that urban accidents and fatalities tend to occur on wide, high speed arterial streets. Causes of approximately 50% of all accidents were failure to yield by motorists or pedestrian and not using a sidewalk. it was concluded that there are no engineering countermeasures that would be useful. Education of the public, particularly children under 14 years of age seems to be the only useful countermeasure. Arizona is heavily urbanized with very little rural population to offset the larger than average rate. the Indian reservations are similar to the rural counties and do not contribute to the high rate, although the rate on Indian reservations if higher than that of the rural counties. Volume I, 67 pages, contains the text and summary figures relevant to the discussion of the results of the research, Volume II contains the appendices.133