Young Adult Pedestrian Report – a 10 point plan

An investigation has been carried out into the road safety problems of young adult pedestrians (YAPs) aged 17-24 years. In the 10 year period 2000-2009, there were 602 young adult pedestrians injured in road accidents in Sheffield. A number of significant findings were made, including:

• Over the 10-year period the trend in YAP casualties shows no evidence of a decrease, unlike trends for other pedestrian casualties.

• There is a seasonal pattern with the winter months of November through to January having significantly higher totals.

• There are three 24-hour periods when most of the collisions occur: late at night and in the early hours of the morning on Saturdays/Sundays; and in the early evening on Tuesday/Wednesday.

• Nearly 50% of the casualties lived in two wards where most of the student population of Sheffield’s two universities live.

• There are 11 cluster sites where the collisions occur, of which 10 are in the central area. At these sites 30% of the pedestrians were drunk at the time of the collisions, whereas elsewhere the proportion of drunken YAPs injured in road collisions is about 22%.

• A number of education, publicity and enforcement campaigns are suggested, targeting the problem at the times and locations that the research has highlighted.