Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Injury Prevention logoLink to Injury Prevention
. 2001 Jun;7(2):155–160. doi: 10.1136/ip.7.2.155

A geographic analysis of motor vehicle collisions with child pedestrians in Long Beach, California: comparing intersection and midblock incident locations

A Lightstone 1, P Dhillon 1, C Peek-Asa 1, J Kraus 1
PMCID: PMC1730721  PMID: 11428565

Abstract

Objectives—The purpose of this study was to use geographic information system (GIS) software to locate areas of high risk for child pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions in the city of Long Beach and to compare risk factors between midblock and intersection collisions.

Methods—Children 0–14 years of age involved in a motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision that occurred on public roadways in Long Beach, CA, between 1 January 1992 and 30 June 1995, were identified retrospectively from police reports. The GIS software program, ArcView, was used for spatial analysis and distance calculations. χ2 Tests were used to compare the distribution of the characteristics between intersection and midblock collisions.

Results—The average annual incident and fatality rate was 183.3/100 000 children/year and 2.4/100 000 children/year, respectively. Children less than 5 years of age were significantly more likely to be hit at a midblock location while those aged 5–9 and 10–14 were more often hit at an intersection. Intersection collisions were more likely to occur on major arterials and local streets, and the driver to be the primary party at fault (p<0.001). While intersection incidents tended to occur further from the child's home (64.4%) the majority of midblock incidents (61.5%) occurred within 0.1 miles of the child's residence. For both midblock and intersection locations, pedestrian collisions tended to occur more frequently in those census tracts with a larger number of families per census tract—a measure of household crowding and density.

Conclusions—Future studies taking into consideration traffic volume and vehicle speed would be useful to focus prevention efforts such as environmental modifications, improving police enforcement, and educational efforts targeted at parents of younger children. As GIS illustrative spatial relationships continue to improve, relationships between pedestrian collision sites and other city landmarks can advance the study of pedestrian incidents.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (235.8 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Agran P. F., Winn D. G., Anderson C. L. Differences in child pedestrian injury events by location. Pediatrics. 1994 Feb;93(2):284–288. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Agran P. F., Winn D. G., Anderson C. L., Tran C., Del Valle C. P. The role of the physical and traffic environment in child pedestrian injuries. Pediatrics. 1996 Dec;98(6 Pt 1):1096–1103. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Andes N., Davis J. E. Linking public health data using geographic information system techniques: Alaskan community characteristics and infant mortality. 1995 Mar 15-Apr 15Stat Med. 14(5-7):481–490. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780140509. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bass D. H., Albertyn R., Melis J. Road traffic collisions involving children as pedestrians. Provisional results of a hospital-based study. S Afr Med J. 1992 Oct;82(4):268–270. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Braddock M., Lapidus G., Cromley E., Cromley R., Burke G., Banco L. Using a geographic information system to understand child pedestrian injury. Am J Public Health. 1994 Jul;84(7):1158–1161. doi: 10.2105/ajph.84.7.1158. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Braddock M., Lapidus G., Gregorio D., Kapp M., Banco L. Population, income, and ecological correlates of child pedestrian injury. Pediatrics. 1991 Dec;88(6):1242–1247. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Briggs D. J., Elliott P. The use of geographical information systems in studies on environment and health. World Health Stat Q. 1995;48(2):85–94. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Guthe W. G., Tucker R. K., Murphy E. A., England R., Stevenson E., Luckhardt J. C. Reassessment of lead exposure in New Jersey using GIS technology. Environ Res. 1992 Dec;59(2):318–325. doi: 10.1016/s0013-9351(05)80038-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Joly M. F., Foggin P. M., Pless I. B. Geographical and socio-ecological variations of traffic accidents among children. Soc Sci Med. 1991;33(7):765–769. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(91)90375-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kraus J. F., Hooten E. G., Brown K. A., Peek-Asa C., Heye C., McArthur D. L. Child pedestrian and bicyclist injuries: results of community surveillance and a case-control study. Inj Prev. 1996 Sep;2(3):212–218. doi: 10.1136/ip.2.3.212. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Malek M., Guyer B., Lescohier I. The epidemiology and prevention of child pedestrian injury. Accid Anal Prev. 1990 Aug;22(4):301–313. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(90)90046-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mueller B. A., Rivara F. P., Lii S. M., Weiss N. S. Environmental factors and the risk for childhood pedestrian-motor vehicle collision occurrence. Am J Epidemiol. 1990 Sep;132(3):550–560. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115691. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Rivara F. P., Barber M. Demographic analysis of childhood pedestrian injuries. Pediatrics. 1985 Sep;76(3):375–381. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Roberts I., Norton R., Dunn R., Hassall I., Lee-Joe T. Environmental factors and child pedestrian injuries. Aust J Public Health. 1994 Mar;18(1):43–46. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1994.tb00193.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Roberts I., Norton R., Jackson R., Dunn R., Hassall I. Effect of environmental factors on risk of injury of child pedestrians by motor vehicles: a case-control study. BMJ. 1995 Jan 14;310(6972):91–94. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6972.91. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Schofer J. L., Christoffel K. K., Donovan M., Lavigne J. V., Tanz R. R., Wills K. E. Child pedestrian injury taxonomy based on visibility and action. Accid Anal Prev. 1995 Jun;27(3):317–333. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(94)00074-v. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Scholten H. J., de Lepper M. J. The benefits of the application of geographical information systems in public and environmental health. World Health Stat Q. 1991;44(3):160–170. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Stevenson M. R., Lo S. K., Laing B. A., Jamrozik K. D. Childhood pedestrian injuries in the Perth metropolitan area. Med J Aust. 1992 Feb 17;156(4):234–238. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1992.tb139739.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Summala H., Pasanen E., Räsänen M., Sievänen J. Bicycle accidents and drivers' visual search at left and right turns. Accid Anal Prev. 1996 Mar;28(2):147–153. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(95)00041-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Injury Prevention are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES