Grant: Operating Grant

Motor vehicle-related pedestrian injuries are among the leading causes of hospitalization and mortality, particularly during the elementary-school years, when children are increasingly allowed to make crossing decisions without adult supervision. Although both environmental factors (e.g., traffic speed) and child attributes (e.g., attention and cognitive skills that impact when and how children cross a street) are involved in the complex etiology of pedestrian injuries, few studies have explored interactive effects of these risk factors. In addition, research has been limited by the challenge of how to accurately measure child pedestrian behaviors in realistic traffic conditions without elevating children's risk of injury. The proposed research brings together an interdisciplinary team of established researchers to address these gaps and challenges in creative and innovative ways. The general aim of the proposed research is to apply a population-health framework to advance our understanding of individual (age, gender, cognitive abilities) x contextual factors (traffic and built environment characteristics) that interact to influence elementary-school children's risk of pedestrian injury, using a novel Virtual Reality (VR) laboratory-based testing approach that affords complete control over traffic and environmental conditions while maximizing ecological validity by measuring children's actual crossing behaviors (e.g., evasive actions taken) in 3-D immersive simulated traffic environments. Results will then be used to evaluate the relative impact of different intervention approaches in the VR context (e.g., training child behaviour, modifying environmental risks) on children's safe crossing behaviours, with the goal being to identify those having the most merit; a formal RCT application can then be submitted to fully evaluate these alternative interventions and identify 'best practices' for preventing child pedestrian injuries.