Pedestrian collisions in South Australia

Abstract

We examine the nature of the decline in pedestrian casualties over the last 25 years. We then examine the changes in crashes in relation to other changes in road crash statistics in South Australia. This is followed by a detailed analysis to estimate the effects of the change in the default urban speed limit that occurred on the 1st of March 2003, when local road speed limits were reduced from 60 km/h to 50 km/h. We also examine some of the characteristics of pedestrian crashes that we have observed during recent in-depth crash studies: in 1999-2000 and 2004-2005, 160 pedestrian crashes were investigated at the scene, and summary data from these studies are presented in this report. This data gives more insight into the characteristics of crashes than can be gleaned from routinely collected police data.