Impact of pedestrian crossing behavior at intersections on road traffic accidents in Shivamogga, Karnataka: an observational study

Abstract

Background: Every year about 1.25 million people die as a result of road traffic injuries and half of those dying on the world’s roads are “vulnerable road users” like pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The objectives of the study were to assess the demographic characteristics of pedestrians and its effects on their crossing behavior and to identify the impact of technological and social distractions among pedestrians on road traffic accidents.Methods: A community based, observational study was conducted for the duration of 2 weeks from 15-Aug-2017 to 30-Aug-2017, all major Pedestrian traffic generating intersections of Shivamogga city were identified; among them three intersections were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected for 5 days at each intersection for all the three intersections. Convenient sampling was used for sample size. Data on demographic and behavioral information for each pedestrian were recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21 software.Results: Crossing behaviors of 468 pedestrians at Intersections were recorded. The majority (46.6%) of pedestrians were in the 25–44 year age category, more than half of the pedestrians observed were males (60.9%). Approximately 22.6% of pedestrians observed performed a distracting activity while crossing. Most of the pedestrians crossed the road by hesitating (32.1%) and by running (28.2%). Pedestrians with technological and social distractions were more prone for road traffic injuries (χ2=31.59, df=4, p=0.001).Conclusions: There is a need to implement pedestrian safety rules and to provide facilities for pedestrians in the infrastructure of roads in India and effective interventions to protect pedestrians.