Pedestrian Crash Reporting

This research provides a broad overview of police and hospital data collection, investigation procedures, legal consequences and the pedestrian experience in relation to crashes involving pedestrians in Victoria, Australia. It also provides a list of recommendations for improving pedestrian crash reporting.Data about pedestrian crashes is collected by police and hospitals. The accuracy of data increases in line with the seriousness of the injury. A further group of pedestrian crashes...
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This research provides a broad overview of police and hospital data collection, investigation procedures, legal consequences and the pedestrian experience in relation to crashes involving pedestrians in Victoria, Australia. It also provides a list of recommendations for improving pedestrian crash reporting.Data about pedestrian crashes is collected by police and hospitals. The accuracy of data increases in line with the seriousness of the injury. A further group of pedestrian crashes and (probably lesser) injuries are not captured in either group of statistics. The implication is that the scale of pedestrian trauma is more substantial than generally thought and certainly much higher than the commonly used road safety statistics based on police reported crashes indicate.Victoria Police have well-established systems for investigating road crashes and attend the scene in approximately two-thirds of recorded crashes. For various reasons, particularly that a pedestrian is likely to be injured and taken from the scene to receive medical attention, pedestrians may not be able to relay 'their side of the story' as readily as drivers. Police report talking with people at the scene and following up later. However other stakeholders questioned how often police talk with pedestrians at a later date to understand their perspective.The data helps to understand the bigger picture but does not convey the human experience.Road crashes involving pedestrians are common at the population level but are rare on an individual level. They are also often traumatic for all involved. The processes for pedestrians to officially record their experience, receive updates about any investigations and understand the outcomes are not always consistent or work the way they should.Police consider drivers to be at fault in 55.5% of pedestrian crashes but issued infringement notices to drivers in less than 20.2%. Drivers deemed to be at fault may be charged rather than receiving infringement(s), however data on charges is not available. Lawyers report that some drivers deemed to be at fault are not issued with any penalty, but how many cannot be determined with the available information.