Citation

Nesoff ED, Pollack KM, Knowlton AR, Bowie JV, Gielen AC. Traffic Injury Prev. 2018; 19(4): 440-445.

Affiliation

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health , Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy ; 624 N. Broadway, 7th floor, Baltimore , MD , 21205 , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15389588.2018.1428961

PMID

29341801

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Understanding pedestrian injury trends at the local level is essential for program planning and allocation of funds for urban planning and improvement. Because we hypothesize that local injury trends differ from national trends in significant and meaningful ways, we investigated city-wide pedestrian injury trends to assess injury risk among nationally-identified risk groups, as well as identify risk groups and locations specific to Baltimore City.

METHODS: Pedestrian injury data, obtained from the Baltimore City Fire Department, were gathered through EMS records collected from January 1 to December 31, 2014. Locations of pedestrian injuries were geocoded and mapped. Pearson Chi-square Test of Independence was used to investigate differences in injury severity level across risk groups. Pedestrian injury rates by age group, gender, and race were compared to national rates.

RESULTS: A total of 699 pedestrians were involved in motor vehicle crashes in 2014-an average of two EMS transports each day. The distribution of injuries throughout the city did not coincide with population or income distributions, indicating there was not a consistent correlation between areas of concentrated population or concentrated poverty and areas of concentrated pedestrian injury. Twenty percent (n = 138) of all injuries occurred among children age ≤14, and 22% (n = 73) of severe injuries occurred among young children. The rate of injury in this age group was five times the national rate (IRR = 4.81, 95% CI = (4.05, 5.71)). Injury rates for adults ≥65 were less than the national average.

CONCLUSIONS: As the urban landscape and associated pedestrian behavior transform, continued investigation of local pedestrian injury trends and evolving public health prevention strategies are necessary for ensuring pedestrian safety.

Language: en

Keywords

descriptive epidemiology; injury surveillance; pedestrian injury; safety