Transportation Data Analytics - Traffic Safety

Research

Elderly Pedestrian Safety

​Changes in the physical and mental abilities of elderly road users have led to an important question of how to define elderly. With an 8-year collision data set in Seoul, this study investigated the commonality and diversity of pedestrian injuries among the elderly by introducing an additional cutoff age of 75. By employing single and interaction binary logit models, common risk factors were identified for both elderly groups, as well as those that are particularly hazardous to the older-old. With nearly every country experiencing growth in the elderly population, our study strongly suggests that the conventional definition of a single elderly group is no longer relevant and the variety among elderly pedestrians needs to be considered in traffic safety policy.

SELECTED REFERENCES

- Yuna Noh, Minjae Kim, Yoonjin Yoon, "Elderly pedestrian safety in a rapidly aging society—Commonality and diversity between the younger-old and older-old." Traffic Injury Prevention, 19(8), 874-879, 2018

Elderly driver injury severity by seat positions and seat-belt use 

Aging has long been regarded as one of the most critical factors affecting crash injury outcomes. In this study, the confounding effect of occupant age in a vehicle in terms of seat position and seatbelt use was investigated. A multinomial logit framework was adopted to predict two-level injury severity using collision data between 2008 and 2015. The degree of injury severity of elderly occupants was reduced the most with the use of a seatbelt, demonstrating the importance of using seat restraints. The sharp increase in the risk of injury of the older-old group suggests that the age standard of 65 years as the elderly group with regard to traffic safety may require reconsideration due to the growing number of elderly vehicle users on the road.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Yuna Noh, Yoonjin Yoon. "Elderly road collision injury outcomes associated with seat positions and seatbelt use in a rapidly aging society – a case study in South Korea", PLoS ONE, 12(8), e0183043, 2017