Pedestrians’ injury patterns in Ghana

Abstract

Objective To establish the associations between pedestrian injury and explanatory variables such as vehicular characteristics, temporal trends, and road environment. Methods A retrospective analysis of de-identified pedestrian crash data between 2002 and 2006 was conducted using the Building & Road Research Institute’s crash data bank. We estimated the odds ratios associated with casualty fatalities using a multinomial logistic regression. Results There were 812 pedestrian casualties reported, out of which 33% were fatal, 45% sustained serious injuries requiring hospitalization, and 22% were slightly injured but were not hospitalized. Crossing the roadway accounted for over 70% of all pedestrians deaths. Whereas fatalities in 2002 and 2003 were statistically indistinguishable from those of 2004(p>0.05), in comparison with 2004, there were significantly fewer fatalities in 2005 and 2006 (78% and 65% reduction respectively). According to police report, the probability that a pedestrian fatality occurring in Ghana is attributable to excessive speeding is 65%. The adjusted odds ratio of pedestrian fatality associated with speeding compared with driver inattentiveness was 3.6(95% CI: 2.5 to 5.2). It was also observed that generally, lighter vehicular masses were associated with lower pedestrian fatalities. Compared with buses, pedestrians were less likely to die when struck by private cars (52%), pick-up trucks (57%), and motorcycles (86%). Conclusion Pedestrian death remains the leading cause of fatality among urban road users in Ghana. Risk factors associated with pedestrian fatality include being hit by heavy vehicles, speeding, and roadside activities such as street hawking, jaywalking and nighttime walking. Steps which may contribute to reducing pedestrian fatalities include measures to reduce vehicles speeds in settlements, providing traffic medians and lighting streets in settlements, and discouraging street and roadside activities such as hawking.

Epidemiology and Outcome Determinants of Pedestrian Injuries in a Level I Trauma Center in Southern Iran; A Cross-Sectional Study

“…These programs include general education of pedestrians regarding inappropriate behaviors, such as talking, inattention, and distraction while crossing the roads [13,49], as well as educating drivers regarding road safety and speed reduction, which eventually decreases mortality caused by accidents in pedestrians. Also, engineering interventions in roads design, such as pedestrian lanes, road barriers, pedestrian bridges, pedestrian crossing signs, and improved road lighting in high-risk areas, can reduce injuries and deaths in pedestrians.…”

“…Iranian pedestrians have the largest number of injuries (39.8%) among all the road users [11,12]. The number of injuries to pedestrians and their mortality rate is dramatically increasing in developing countries compared to develop ones [13]. Additionally, pedestrians' accidents comprise 18% of road fatalities (22 thousands annually) in highincome countries and 45% of road fatalities (200 thousands per year) in low-income ones [14].…”

Injury pattern in lethal motorbikes-pedestrian collisions, in the area of Barcelona, Spain

“…In 2005 in the United States more than 64,000 of the injured people were pedestrians 1 , in Germany in 2008, a total of 695 pedestrians were killed and 33.733 were injured 2 . The magnitude of the epidemiologic problem takes even more importance in developing countries, for instance in Ghana 60% of people who died by traffic accidents were pedestrians 3 . Therefore, there are many initiatives undertaken by different institutions to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities involving pedestrians, as well as the severity of the sustained injuries.…”

The Prevalence of Alcohol Use among Road Users and Its Impact on Traffic Crash Severity in Ghana

“…Pedestrian risks are potentially compounded as the majority of these incidents were at night in predominantly unlit settlements, they may thus appear less visible to motorists due to non-reflective garments especially at weekend nights when Ghanaians use non-reflective dark-coloured attire for funeral celebrations (Damsere-Derry et al, 2010). Notwithstanding, the low police reporting of drug and alcohol use among casualties in Northern Ghana, it is believed that this is probably an underreporting,…”

“…For example, a crash is classified as fatal if within thirty days of occurrence, at least one of the victims had died, or is hospitalised within the same timeframe, at least one of the crash victims had stayed in the hospital for at least twenty-four hours. This description is in consonance with the national crash database at the BRRI (Damsere-Derry, Ebel, Mock, Afukaar, & Donkor, 2010). For methodological convenience, the injury severity will be dichotomized into two levels (e.g., fatal versus non-fatal; or minor versus serious injuries) to fit for logistic regressions which will be the predominant statistical procedure in the analysis.…”