The Nighttime Pedestrian Collision: Human Factors Issues and a Case Study

Abstract

Injuries to pedestrians in collisions with motor vehicles are a significant problem in traffic safety, accounting for about 13% of fatalities, with more than half occurring at night. There are many variables that affect the visibility of pedestrians in darkness such as: the reflectance of their clothing, their position on the roadway, atmospheric conditions, road characteristics, street lighting, motor vehicle headlamps and their aim and alignment; other ambient lighting and background conditions, glare of headlamps of oncoming traffic and from street lamps, the driving environment and activities and performance of the driver. These issues are discussed, the techniques used to make a human factors analysis are described and some are illustrated by a case study of a night, pedestrian collision on a rural road.

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