Features of serious pedestrian injuries in vehicle-to-pedestrian accidents in Japan

This study clarifies vehicle accident scenarios in which pedestrians suffer serious injuries. We investigated the characteristics of serious pedestrian injuries in accidents, using vehicle-to-pedestrian accident data for 1999 and 2009 in Japan. We focused on the main body region of seriously injured pedestrians considering different factors including the accident year, vehicle type, travel speed, and pedestrian gender and age. The results indicate that sedans, mini vans and light passenger cars tended to injure pedestrians' legs more frequently, while box vans and light cargo vans tended to injure the head more frequently. The results also show that female pedestrians suffered hip injuries more often than male pedestrians in accidents involving sedans, mini vans, light passenger cars and light cargo vans. In accidents involving sedans, it was revealed that the head and hip were injured statistically more frequently at high vehicle travel speed than at low vehicle travel speed in all age groups.