Pedestrians – deaths and injuries

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Over the last 5 years, 1 in every 6 road deaths in South Australia was a pedestrian. The age group most involved were people aged 60 and over. However, in the past 2 years this has dramatically reduced.

Research has found that alcohol is a factor in many pedestrian deaths. Over 30% had a blood alcohol level over 0.5 and many of those had 4 times that amount. Male pedestrians have higher rates of death and injury than females.

Most pedestrian deaths are in the metropolitan Adelaide area, as would be expected, and the 3 most dangerous roads were South Road, North Terrace and King William Street.

Figure 1 – South Australian pedestrian fatalities, 1994-2003


The 17 deaths recorded in 2003 were the lowest number of pedestrian fatalities on record for South Australia and were below the national average. The most deaths of pedestrians occurred in the Northern Territory, NSW and Queensland.

What ages are most at risk?
Figure 2 – Pedestrian fatalities by age, 1994-2003

Findings:

• The main reduction in the pedestrian death rate in the last 2 years has been in pedestrians aged 60 years and over.
• Over 30% of pedestrians who died had a blood alcohol concentration above the legal driving limit of .05.
• About 2 out of every 3 of these had a blood alcohol concentration more than 4 times the legal driving limit.
• Male pedestrians have higher rates of death and injury than females, until the age of 60 when the number of female casualties increases. However, this is probably due to the higher number of women in this older age category.

Pedestrian casualties
Pedestrian casualties also decreased in 2003 compared to the previous 10 years. As with fatalities, the majority of pedestrian casualties occurred in metropolitan Adelaide – around 85%.

What ages are most at risk?
Children and young people make up a higher proportion of pedestrian injuries than pedestrian deaths.

Figure 3 - Pedestrian casualties by age, 1994-2003

Which roads are most dangerous for pedestrians?
Over 85% of pedestrian deaths and injuries are in the metropolitan Adelaide area, which is where most pedestrian activity exists. The most dangerous roads of the past 3 years are ranked below.

Table 1 - Top ten roads where pedestrian casualties have occurred, 2001-2003