Grant: Project Grant

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for Canadian children 1-19 years. For elementary-school children, motor vehicle pedestrian injury is the key issue. The proposed research will address this issue by studying how children cross streets and identifying risk factors for injury. Although both environmental factors and child attributes are implicated in pedestrian injuries, few studies have explored interactive effects of these factors (e.g., Do child attributes elevate injury risk only under certain traffic conditions?). Also, research has been limited by the challenge of how to measure children's crossing behaviors in traffic without elevating risk of injury. This research will address these issues in an innovative way -- using a Virtual Reality pedestrian environment to study how children cross streets in highly realistic traffic conditions that can be completely controlled. The overall goals are to determine: (1) how individual-difference attributes interact with contextual factors (built environment features, traffic conditions) to influence children's risk of injury when crossing streets and (2) if these relations differ by child sex or age group (e.g., Can attention differences explain why boys and younger children are at highest risk for pedestrian injuries?). The knowledge gained from this research can inform: city planning about traffic flow and road design; school policies about crossing guards and guidelines about safe school routes; guidelines for parents about children's readiness to cross unsupervised; and the development of behavioral training systems to teach children safer crossing skills.