Children's Street Crossing Behaviors and Pedestrian Injury Risk

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for Canadian children. Of all types of injury, motor vehicle

pedestrian injury is the single greatest issue for school children: approximately 30 children under the age of 14

are killed annually and another 2,412 are seriously injured. Although children are sometimes victims of poor

drivers, many injuries link to their own behavior in traffic situations. One of the greatest challenges to progress

in this research area, however, has been devising ways to study children's crossing behaviors under realistic

traffic conditions while not placing them at risk of injury. Addressing this need, Dr. Morrongiello's first grant established

an immersive, interactive virtual pedestrian environment delivered via 3-D goggles to study children's actual

street crossing behaviors.

 

AIM 1 of this research examines the development of 'evasive action' skills while crossing and how

these interface with the development of 'initiation' crossing skills. AIM 2 is to develop/implement a mobile

virtual reality system and 'Safe Crossing' training program to teach children both where and how to cross

safely.

 

The knowledge gained from this research can inform city planning about traffic flow and road design, school

policies about crossing guards and guidelines about safe school routes, parent decisions about supervising

children when they cross streets, and the focus in pedestrian training programs.