Study: One in three pedestrian road accident victims is drunk

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A third of pedestrians and one in four cyclists who get killed in traffic accidents are under the influence, if the limit of intoxication is set at 0.5 ppm of blood alcohol.
      This was one of the sobering findings of a master's degree dissertation by Pia Nieminen that has been published by the Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre. In her study, Nieminen included 524 fatal accidents investigated by various road accident boards of inquiry between 1997 and 2002, in which 281 pedestrians and 243 cyclists died.
     
Cycling men were drunk ten times as often as cycling women. Among pedestrians, the corresponding factor was close to three. Over half of the male pedestrians and nearly 40 per cent of male cyclists were under the influence of alcohol when the fatal accident occurred.
      Alcohol played a particularly distinct role in the deaths of cyclists who fell over or swerved off the road, for nearly three out of four of the victims of such accidents were intoxicated.
      One in ten cyclists had a helmet on. Only seven per cent of the pedestrians who got killed after dark were equipped with a luminous reflector-badge or tag. Likewise, fewer than half of the cyclists had lights on their bicycle.
     
Most of the pedestrians and the cyclists were in violation of traffic regulations at the time of the accident.
      Around one out of six male and nearly one out of ten female pedestrians were reckoned to have deliberately caused the accident. Some of the cases were considered to be obvious suicides.
      Most of the so-called "light traffic" - pedestrians and cyclists - fatalities occurred in built-up areas and in the daytime. Many of the men died at night-time and during the weekends, which suggests a link to male weekend spending habits.
      Often the victims, both pedestrians and cyclists alike, were relatively advanced in age, and were hit by a car driven by a young or working-age driver.
      The high risk of young drivers is evident even in the light traffic fatality statistics. Male drivers between 18 to 35 years of age were more often guilty of speeding at the time of the accident than older drivers. Also, they had more previous traffic violation convictions than other age groups.
      According to the study, observational errors were the most common risk factor, and both parties were guilty of them. However, it was also established that the accident was most often caused by the pedestrian or the cyclist's violation of traffic regulations.
     
An equal number of male and female pedestrians lost their lives in traffic accidents, even though studies suggest that women walk more than men.
      When the accident occurred, one in four of the male fatalities was stationary on a traffic lane, while one in five was sober but crossing the street outside a pedestrian crossing.
      Forty per cent of the pedestrian women who were knocked down and killed were on a pedestrian crossing at the time.


Links:
  Finnish Motor Insurers´ Centre

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