࢖ࢱࣝࢲ࢖ࣥࣇ࢛࣓࣮ࢩࣙࣥ

ITARDA INFORMATION
஺㏻஦ᨾศᯒ࣏࣮ࣞࢺ
  
featureNo.98

Characteristics of pedestrian accidents
on community roads-Watch out for children crossing roads
and running out in front of vehicles5,854 injur y accidents between 2007-2011〈Breakdown of injury accidents by legal violations
attributable to pedestrians 〉(Vehicle and pedestrian (under 13) accidents by crossing outside the crosswalksof single-lane community roads)

No violation
Other violations

9.8%

10.4%
Crossing outsideof pedestrian 6.4%
crossings
Crossing immediately
7.4%
in front of/behinda parking or
stopping vehicle
7.6%

Running out infront of vehicles

Crossing
immediately in front of/behind a moving vehicle

 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P2
 Background to injury accidents on community roads  P2
 Pedestrian accidents on community roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P4
 Causes of accidents with child pedestrians under 13 . . . . . . . P5
 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P8

58.4%

≉㞟

⏕ά㐨㊰ୖࡢṌ⾜⪅஦ᨾࡢ≉ᚩࠉ㹼Ꮚ౪ࡢᶓ᩿࣭㣕ฟࡋ࡟ὀព㹼

1 Introduction
Since 2008, pedestrian fatalities have overtaken cyclist fatalities to become the largest group of fatalities caused bytraffic accidents. Of the 4,612 traffic accident fatalities occurring in Japan in 2011, approximately one-third werepedestrian traffic accident fatalities, standing at 1,686; countermeasures to reduce pedestrian accidents have thus
become an issue of the utmost importance for reducing traffic accident casualties as a whole. In particular, a large
number of pedestrian accidents involving local children occur in the relatively narrow roads surrounding drivers’
residences which we make use of on a day-to-day basis, known as “community roads.” Furthermore, althoughtraffic accidents in general have been decreasing in recent years, there has been only a relatively small decreasein the number of accidents occurring on these community roads compared with other road types.
This issue will discuss pedestrian accidents on community roads, clarify the characteristics of and causes behindsuch accidents, and consider some points which will help both pedestrians and drivers to prevent such accidents
from occurring.

‫ ڦ‬What are “community roads”?
The term “community roads” refers to small streets of narrow width which form “the roads which persons living in agiven district use for journeys within said district and for journeys to arterial roads (roads which transport
through-traffic, primarily national roads and prefectural roads).”*1. For the purposes of this issue’s analysis,“community roads” are defined as comprising uninterrupted road stretches with a width of 5.5m or under(hereinafter “single-lane roads (less than 5.5m wide)”) and intersections in which both roads have a width of lessthan 5.5m wide (hereinafter “narrow-to-narrow intersections (less than 5.5m wide)”), based on analysis of traffic
accident data, as shown in Fig. 1. This definition makes no distinction based on road category, and therefore may
sometimes include national roads and prefectural roads etc.
*1 Citation: Manual of Countermeasures for Neighborhood Street Zones, Japan Society of Traffic Engineers, 2011

Road less than
5.5m wide

Road less than
5.5m wide

Road less than
5.5m wide

Single-lane roads (less than 5.5m wide)

Narrow-to-narrow intersection (less than 5.5m wide)

Fig. 1: Deﬁnition of community roads in the report

Background to injury accidents

2 on community roads‫ ڦ‬Trend of injury accidents on community roads
Fig. 2 shows the trends in the numbers of injury accidents between 2007 and 2011, broken down by road width.
The absolute number of injury accidents on community roads is not large compared with other roads; however,such accidents tended to decrease by only a relatively small margin during these years compared to the overall
decrease seen in injury accidents during the same period. While overall injury accidents decreased by 16.9% overthis period, accidents on single-lane community roads have decreased by only 15.4% and those at neighborhoodintersections by only 10.6%. This indicates that we need to focus on community roads as a place where accidents
are occurring.

ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

900,000

Total

832,454
23,885800,000

Parking lots etc.

766,147

737,474

23,211

24,229No. of injury accidents

700,000

691,937

24,626

Single-lane roads
over 13m wide

24,767303,285
277,962

600,000

Intersections other thannarrow-to-narrow

725,773

263,578

255,281Single-lane roads
over 5.5m andless than 13m wide

237,451

500,000

Narrow-to-narrow intersections(less than 5.5m wide)

70,32665,93064,92764,220271,820

261,989

258,953

248,928

58,12856,20555,23054,43351,99477,80871,01967,521

68,26065,791

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

400,000

63,006

Single-lane roads
less than 5.5m wide

300,000
299,022200,000
100,000
0Community roads
Year

Fig. 2: Trends in no. of injury accidents by road width (2007-2011)‫ ڦ‬Types of accidents that occur on community roads
Fig. 3 shows the composition ratio of injury accidents on community roads in 2011, broken down by accident type.
Of accidents on single-lane community roads less than 5.5m wide, accidents between two four-wheeled vehicles
were the commonest type at 46.8%. Accidents between a four-wheeled vehicle and a pedestrian made up 11.6% of
accidents in these locations.
Of accidents on narrow-to-narrow community road intersections (less than 5.5m wide), accidents between afour-wheeled vehicle and a bicycle were the commonest type at 35.2%. Accidents between a four-wheeled vehicle
and a pedestrian made up 6.4% of accidents in these locations.
Accidents on community roads between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians do not occur in large numbers
either on uninterrupted road sections or at intersections; however, whereas accidents between four-wheeledvehicles and pedestrians make up only 8.0% of accidents on roads in general, they make up 11.6% of all accidents
on single-lane community roads, a relatively high percentage (although at community road intersections only 6.4%of accidents are between a four-wheeled vehicle and a pedestrian, a similar percentage as for roads in general).
We can infer from this that pedestrian accidents on community roads tend to result from distinctive causes,
connected with the fact that these are narrow roads.
Single-lanecommunity roads(lessthan 5.5m wide)
n=65,795

5.6％（3,666）46.8％

10.6％ 13.2％ 11.6％（30,761）（6,971） （8,695） （7,599）（8,099）0.7％

Community roadintersections(less than 5.5m wide)
n=51,994

（367）

32.1％

16.2％

（16,675）（8,436）

6.4％

35.2％

（3,333）（4,876）（18,307）2.5％（17,413）

51.9％

All roads
n=691,937

13.1％ 17.5％（359,353）

0％

20％

60％

8.0％

80％

Four-wheeledvehicle withmotorcycle
Four-wheeledvehicle withbicycleFour-wheeledvehicle withpedestrian
Four-wheeledvehicle alone（90,850） （121,004） （55,284） （48,033）

40％

Four-wheeledvehicle with
four-wheeledvehicle

Other

100％

Breakdown of injury accidents

Fig. 3: Breakdown of injury accidents by type (2011)
ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

≉㞟⏕ά㐨㊰ୖࡢṌ⾜⪅஦ᨾࡢ≉ᚩࠉ㹼Ꮚ౪ࡢᶓ᩿࣭㣕ฟࡋ࡟ὀព㹼

3 Pedestrian accidents on community roads
What kind of situations tend to give rise to pedestrian accidents on community roads? We investigated thecharacteristics of such accidents, focusing on accidents between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians.

■Characteristics of times when accidents occur
Pedestrian accidents on community roads are commonest during the daytime
Fig. 4 is a graph showing a breakdown by time slot of accidents between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians oncommunity roads resulting in casualties. It is evident that accidents between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians oncommunity roads are commonest during the daytime, and particularly in the evening time slot of 15:00-18:00. These
accidents are occurring most frequently in the time slots when people are at their most active in their daily activities.
7,000

No. of injury accidents

15:00-18:00

Narrow-to-narrow intersections (less than 5.5m wide)

6,000

Single-lane roads less than 5.5m wide
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Time slots

Fig. 4: Breakdown of injury accidents by time slot (Four-wheeled vehicles
and pedestrians on community roads/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)■Characteristics of pedestrians involved in accidentsChildren under 13 make up the largest group of pedestrians involved in accidents
Fig. 5 shows the pedestrians involved in accidents by age group. Children under 13 make up a very large
percentage of pedestrians involved in accidents with four-wheeled vehicles on community roads; 27% of all suchpedestrians fall into this age group.
12,000
Narrow-to-narrowintersection(less than 5.5m wide)

Under 13 (27%)

8,000Single-lane roads
less than 5.5m wide

6,000
4,000

80 and
over

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

19-24

13-18

0

7-12

2,000

Under 7

No. of injury accidents

10,000Pedestrians by
age group

Fig. 5: Breakdown of injury accidents by age group (Four-wheeled vehicles
and pedestrians on community roads/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)
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ITARDA INFORMATION no.98
Accidents with child pedestrians under 13 occur while they are playing on the street, and arriving
at/leaving school
Table 1 shows the road use purposes of child pedestrians under 13 who were involved in accidents. Childpedestrians who were using the road for playing made up the largest group, followed by arriving at/leaving
school. Together, these groups comprised more than half the total.

Road use purpose
Single-lane roads(less than
5.5m wide)

No. ofinjuryaccidents

Narrow-tonarrowintersection (lessthan 5.5m wide)
Total forcommunity
roads

Playing

29.0％

LeavingschoolArriving
at school

12.4％

10.4％

（3,239）（1,396）（1,161）

29.3％

15.1％

10.8％

（1,348）29.1％（4,587）

（692）

（496）

13.2％

10.5％

（2,078）（1,657）

Visiting

Shopping

9.4％（1,056）

9.1％

（420）

9.4％

（1,476）

6.4％

（711）

Other

Total

32.4％

11,175

32.1％

4,594

32.1％

15,769（3,622）

4.5％

（206）

（1,432）

5.8％

（917）

（5,054）

Table 1: Injury accidents by road use purpose(Four-wheeled vehicles
and pedestrians (under 13)on community roads/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)

4 Causes of accidents with child pedestrians under 13
What factors cause pedestrian accidents involving children under 13 on community roads?
Let us investigate the causes based on the traffic accident data.

D     
Around half such accidents occur when children cross roads outside of pedestrian crossings
Fig. 6 shows a breakdown of injury accidents between child pedestrians under 13 and four-wheeled vehicles, by
type of accident. As the figure indicates, more than half of all such accidents occur when children cross roads
outside of pedestrian crossings, for both accidents on single-lane community roads and accidents atintersections. We believe that the fact that these are community roads means that there are many places without
pedestrian crossings. Furthermore, the percentage of accidents caused when pedestrians were playing on
the street or proceeding towards the vehicle from the front/rear tends to be higher for community roads thanfor roads in general, indicating that this is a particular characteristic of accidents on roads that are narrow in width.
Let us now examine what kind of causes lie behind these accidents which occur when pedestrians are crossing
outside of pedestrian crossings, which make up such a high percentage of accidents.

Crossing at pedestrian crossings 4.3％（482）Single-lanecommunity roads(less than 5.5m wide)
n=11,175

Crossing outside of pedestrian crossings
52.4％（5,854）
Crossing at pedestrian crossings 13.9％（637）Community road
Intersections(less than 5.5m wide)
n=4,594

Crossing outside of pedestrian crossings
51.0％（2,342）

All roads
n=50,024

Crossing outside of pedestrian crossings
51.1％（25,538）

Proceeding towards thevehicle from the front 6.8％（758）Proceeding towards thevehicle from the rear 5.2％（580）

Playing on the street

Other

9.2％（1,033）

22.1％（2,468）

Proceeding towards thevehicle from the front 1.3％（61）Proceeding towards thevehicle from the rear 1.1％（51）Playing on the street

Other

12.4％（571）Proceeding towards thevehicle from the front 2.8％（1,419）

20.3％（932）Proceeding towards thevehicle from the rear 2.6％（1,291）
Other

Crossing at pedestrian crossings
20.9％（10,449）

17.0％（8,517）

Playing on the street 5.6％（2,810）
0％

20％

40％

60％

80％

100％

Fig. 6: Breakdown of injury accidents by type (Four-wheeled vehicles
and pedestrians (under 13)/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)
ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

≉㞟⏕ά㐨㊰ୖࡢṌ⾜⪅஦ᨾࡢ≉ᚩࠉ㹼Ꮚ౪ࡢᶓ᩿࣭㣕ฟࡋ࡟ὀព㹼‫ ڦ‬Legal violations behind accidents
Causes attributable to four-wheeled vehicle drivers: failure to confirm safety or violation of safe-speed limitsFirst, let us investigate the kind of legal violations that are attributable to four-wheeled vehicle drivers. As shown in
Fig. 7, the commonest legal violation attributable to drivers for accidents on community roads is failure to confirm
safety, standing at nearly 40%. Let us now further break down accidents on community roads into those on
single-lane roads and those at intersections. It is evident that violation of safe-speed limits and failure to watch
traffic movements were the commonest violations, while at intersections the commonest violations were violationof go-slow rules and violation of mandatory safety measures when advancing through intersections.
Together, these causes lie behind a high percentage of accidents on community roads as a whole. It appears,
therefore, that accident causes attributable to drivers are careless driving in terms of observing safe speeds andgo-slow zone rules, and failure to confirm safety and failure to watch the movements of pedestrians.

Violation of mandatory safety measures

Violation of go-slow zone rules 2.9％（171）Single-lanecommunity roads(less than 5.5m wide)
n=5,854

Failure to
Violation of safe- watch traﬃcspeed limits
movements
19.3％（1,127） 12.9％（755）Failure to conﬁrm safety
41.9％（2,452）

Violation of go-slow
zone rules 4.9％（1,257）
Failure to conﬁrm safety
39.5％（10,079）

0％

20％

Violation ofsafe-speed limits
Failure to watch traﬃcmovements
Violation of go-slow
zone rules
Violation of mandatory
safety measures whenadvancing throughintersections

Violation of mandatory
Violation of gosafety measures whenslow zone rules
advancing
20.5％（479） through intersections
18.9％（443）

Failure to conﬁrm safety
32.7％（767）

All roads
n=25,538

Failure to conﬁrm safety

Failure to watch
traﬃc movements 5.8％（136）

Violation of safespeed limits 5.7％（133）Community roadintersections(less than 5.5m wide)
n=2,342

when advancing through intersections 0.5％（30）Failure to conﬁrm front
view (inattentive driving)
Failure to conﬁrm front
view (mindless driving)

Violation of mandatory
safety measures when advancing
through intersections 6.7％（1,716）

Other violation
No violation

Violation ofsafe-speed Failure to watch
traﬃc movements
limits（2,953）
11.6％
13.9％（3,559）

40％

60％

80％

100％

Fig. 7: Breakdown of injury accidents by legal violations attributableto drivers (Accidents between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians (under 13)
crossing outside of pedestrian crossings /Total ﬁgures from 2007-2011)
Causes attributable to pedestrians: children running out in front of vehicles or committing
crossing violations
Meanwhile, legal violations attributable to child pedestrians are shown in Fig. 8. The figure indicates that for
accidents on both single-lane roads and at community road intersections, accidents caused by children runningout in front of vehicles comprise nearly 60% of the total. It is evident that running-out-in-front accidents tend to
be commoner on this type of road than for roads in general. We believe that one factor behind this is the fact thatthe narrowness of such roads makes it difficult for drivers to slow down or avoid children when they run out in frontof vehicles. The figure also shows that nearly 20% of such accidents are with pedestrians who are crossing
immediately in front of/behind a moving vehicle or crossing immediately in front of/behind a parking or
stopping vehicle. We believe that causes attributable to drivers are more important as factors behind these
accidents; however, children’s actions—running out in front of vehicles or crossing the road from behind vehicles
where drivers cannot see them—often serve as the immediate triggers for such collisions. To ensure that children
stay safe, it is important that children watch out for cars passing through their neighborhoods, and take care at all
times not to run out in front of vehicles or commit crossing violations, even in their own neighborhood areas.
ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

Single-lanecommunity roads(less than 5.5m wide)
n=5,854
Community roadintersections(less than 5.5m wide)
n=2,342

Crossing immediately in front of/behind a moving vehicle7.6％（447）

Crossing outside ofpedestrian crossings 6.4％（372）Otherviolations

Running out in front of vehicles
58.4％（3,420）

Running out infront of vehicles

No violation

Crossing
immediately infront of/behinda moving vehicle

10.4％（607） 9.8％（572）

Crossing immediately in front of/behind a parking or stopping vehicle 7.4％（436）
Crossing immediately in front of/behind a moving vehicle 9.4％（219）

Crossing outside ofpedestrian crossings 5.8％（137）Otherviolations

Running out in front of vehicles
58.9％（1,380）

No violation

13.7％（321）

Crossing immediately in front of/behind a parking or stopping vehicle 2.6％（60）Crossing
immediately infront of/behinda parking or
stopping vehicle

12.0％（3,061）

Crossing outsideof pedestriancrossings

Crossing outside of

Crossing immediately in front of/behind a moving vehicle 9.1％（2,333） pedestrian crossings 10.9％（2,782）

All roads
n=25,538

Other violations

Other
violations

No violation（2,802） 12.0％（3,061）

Running out in front of vehicles
49.1％（12,543）

No violation

11.0％

Crossing immediately in front of/behind a parking or stopping vehicle 7.9％（2,017）
0％

Fig 8:

20％

40％

80％

60％

100％

Breakdown of injury accidents by pedestriansʼ legal violations(Four-wheeled vehiclesand pedestrians (under 13)/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)‫ ڦ‬Speed of four-wheeled vehicles on community roads
Driving too fast is dangerous
From the analysis we have undertaken thus far, it is evident that while it is important that drivers of four-wheeledvehicles keep a close eye on the movements of children they can see as they drive through community roads, it isalso vital that they pay attention to the fact that a pedestrian could at any moment run out in front of their vehicle
from an unseen place on either side of their vehicle as they drive. It is therefore essential, first and foremost, thatdrivers drive at speeds which allow them to ensure safety. Fig. 9 shows the fatal accident rate for accidents
between four-wheeled vehicles and pedestrians on community roads, broken down by danger perception speed*2
for four-wheeled vehicle drivers. The fatality rate is the rate of fatal accidents as a percentage of all injury accidents.
It is evident from this graph that once vehicle speed exceeds 30km/h, the fatality rate rises rapidly. It
appears that driving too fast has a massive impact on the seriousness of accidents if they do occur. The quickest
way to improve safety is for drivers to make every effort to drive at safer speeds as a precautionary measure, inorder both to prevent accidents and to lessen the harm that can occur if an accident should happen.
*2 Speed of vehicle at the point when the other party was perceived as a danger
30％

25％

Single-lane roads (less than 5.5m wide)

Fatality rate

20％

Narrow-to-narrow intersections (less than 5.5m wide)
15％

10％

5％

0％
≦10km/h≦20km/h≦30km/h≦40km/h≦50km/h≦60km/h＞60km/hDanger perception speed

Fig 9:

Fatality rate by danger perception speed (Four-wheeled vehicles
and pedestrians on community roads/2007-2011 total ﬁgures)
ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

࠙"      !ࠚ )          confirm that they are safe fromsurrounding cars before crossing the road                        % " *          work to raise children’s awarenessabout the importance of watching out for cars              $     %ࠉ ࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉࠉ 㸦+  , $ 㸧‫ە‬ᙜࢭࣥࢱ࣮は、平成４年（１９９２年）に国家公安委員会、運輸省（当時）、建設省（当時）から設立許可を受けて、公益法人として設立されました。
その後平成２４年（２０１２年）
４月に公益財団法人に移行しました。
我が国で唯一道路交通法の定める
ࠕ஺㏻஦ᨾㄪᰝศᯒࢭࣥࢱ࣮ࠖࡢᣦᐃࢆᅜᐙබᏳጤဨ఍࠿ࡽཷࡅࡓ
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ITARDA INFORMATION no.98

No.98

25
2

公益財団法人 交通事故総合分析センター    !
࠙"         ࠚ
 #           drive at low speeds to ensure
safety$    speed at under 30km/h      $         % &           $            ' $            dropping their speed to a level which
would allow them to stop immediately if necessary.
 (          “just-in-case driving”                                  $      %ITARDA INFORMATION

Characteristics of pedestrian accidents on community roads 
            during
the evening hours of 15:00-18:00.
            child pedestrians under
13 playing or arriving at/leaving school.
 More than half            pedestrians are crossing outside of pedestrian crossings.
                   “failure toconfirm safety,” “violation of go-slow zone rules” and “violation of safe-speed
limits.”             “running out in front of vehicles” and“crossing violations.”

஺㏻஦ᨾศᯒ࣏ࣞ勖ࢺ

5 Summary