Author: Judson S. Matthias

Publisher:

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 78

ISBN-13:

This research investigated the causes of pedestrian accidents in Arizona to discover why Arizona's pedestrian accident rate is 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 acccidents (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 motorist or pedestrian and not using a crosswalk. 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 of Indian reservations is higher than that of rural counties. Volume I contains the text and summary figures relevant to the discussion of the results of the research. Volume II, 113 pages, contains the appendices.