Factors Influencing Fatalities or Severe Injuries to Pedestrians Lying on the Road in Japan: Nationwide Police Database Study

To help reduce the number of pedestrians lying on the road suffering fatal or severe injuries as a result of vehicle collisions, we investigated the influencing factors. We conducted an analysis of the records of the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis Japan between 2012 and 2018; we found that 2452 pedestrians lying on the road were involved in collisions (797 fatalities, 784 severely injured, 871 mildly injured). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified the following as major factors that positively influenced the fatalities: head or neck injuries (odds ratio [OR], 90.221); trunk injuries (OR, 71.040); trucks as offending vehicle (OR, 2.741); collision velocity of 10–20 km/h (OR, 31.794), 20–30 km/h (OR, 2.982), 30–40 km/h (OR, 8.394), 40–50 km/h (OR, 16.831), and >50 km/h (OR, 18.639); and hit-and-run cases (OR, 1.967). The following had a positive influence on severe injuries: trunk injuries (OR, 4.060); collision velocity of 10–20 km/h (OR, 2.540), 20–30 km/h (OR, 3.700), 30–40 km/h (OR, 5.297), 40–50 km/h (OR, 5.719), and ≥50 km/h (OR, 5.244); and hit-and-run cases (OR, 2.628). Decreasing the collision velocity, avoiding collisions to the head and neck or trunk, and preventing hit-and-run cases would be effective in reducing fatal or severe injuries to pedestrians lying on the road.