IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i23p8995-d455316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alcohol and Road Accidents Involving Pedestrians as Unprotected Road Users

Author

Listed:
  • Dorota Lasota

    (Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Ahmed Al-Wathinani

    (Department of Emergency Medical Services, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz College for Emergency Medical Services, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia)

  • Paweł Krajewski

    (Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, 00-001 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Krzysztof Goniewicz

    (Department of Aviation Security, Military University of Aviation, 08-521 Dęblin, Poland)

  • Witold Pawłowski

    (Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, 20-081 Lublin, Poland)

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than half of all road fatalities involve vulnerable road users, i.e., pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Poland is classified as one of the European Union (EU) countries marked by low road safety, with a higher frequency of accidents involving pedestrians compared to other EU countries (31% of all fatalities). Among unprotected road users, a significant group of victims are pedestrians, who are often under the influence of alcohol. This study aims to analyze the impact of alcohol on the risk of occurrence and consequences of road accidents among pedestrians. The source of data was the medical documentation of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Medical University of Warsaw. In more than half of pedestrian deaths, the presence of alcohol was found; regardless of the place of the event and the place of death, among the victims under the influence of alcohol, males dominated; the average age of the victims under the influence of alcohol was significantly lower compared to the average age of sober victims, with younger victims being significantly more likely to die at the scene of the accident, especially in rural areas; significantly higher alcohol concentrations were found in males, in victims who died at the scene of the accident, and with victims of accidents in rural areas. Among pedestrian traffic accident fatalities, the most numerous group comprised young men under the influence of alcohol. In rural areas, a higher percentage of pedestrian victims died at the scene as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. These areas should be subject to intensive preventive measures to increase the safety of pedestrians as unprotected road users.

Suggested Citation

  • Dorota Lasota & Ahmed Al-Wathinani & Paweł Krajewski & Krzysztof Goniewicz & Witold Pawłowski, 2020. "Alcohol and Road Accidents Involving Pedestrians as Unprotected Road Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8995-:d:455316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8995/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8995/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Witold Pawłowski & Dorota Lasota & Mariusz Goniewicz & Patryk Rzońca & Krzysztof Goniewicz & Paweł Krajewski, 2019. "The Effect of Ethyl Alcohol upon Pedestrian Trauma Sustained in Traffic Crashes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-8, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monika Burzyńska & Małgorzata Pikala, 2021. "Decreasing Trends in Road Traffic Mortality in Poland: A Twenty-Year Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dorota Lasota & Ahmed Al-Wathinani & Paweł Krajewski & Dagmara Mirowska-Guzel & Krzysztof Goniewicz & Attila J. Hertelendy & Riyadh A. Alhazmi & Witold Pawłowski & Amir Khorram-Manesh & Mariusz Goniew, 2020. "Alcohol and the Risk of Railway Suicide," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-10, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8995-:d:455316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.