Wheelchair users more likely to die in car crashes

Wheelchair users possess a significantly higher threat of being killed in automobile crashes than other pedestrians, according to current research. The research, published in the online journal BMJ Open, found that those in wheelchairs are 3 times more prone to perish in road-traffic crashes compared to remaining people and many of these deaths happen at junctions. The the study also revealed that guys in wheelchairs are five times more likely than girls in wheelchairs to expire in these types of injuries. Nearly 5,000 pedestrians are killed in traffic crashes each year and approximately 76,000 are hurt, according to the United States Department of Transportation. But really few details can be found regarding who might be most at risk."Knowing and describing threats would be the initiatives to turning them," research author Dr. John Kraemer assistant professor of health systems management at Georgetown's College of Nursing & Health Studies and a scholar at the college O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Regulation, said in a statement. "While there is only a little data on nonfatal pedestrian accidents among individuals who use wheelchairs, there were virtually none on deadly injuries."For the research, Kraemer and his staff examined police reports of road-traffic crashes on U.S. streets and newspaper articles about car-crash fatalities to estimate how many wheelchair-users were casualties of pedestrian crashes. They discovered that about 528 wheelchair-users were killed in road-traffic crashes all over the united states between 2006 and 2012. This equates into a pedestrian wheel-chair person threat of passing being about 3 6% more compared to remaining people. The biggest danger was found in guys in wheelchairs aged 50 to 6 4. The investigators also found that nearly half the deadly collisions occurred at junctions, and in about four in 10 of these events, traffic flow had not been controlled."A large percentage of crashes happened at places without traffic controls or crosswalks," Kraemer stated. "When there's poor pedestrian infrastructure or it is ill adapted to individuals with mobility disabilities, individuals who use wheelchairs frequently are made to make use of the roads, or are otherwise uncovered to higher danger. In addition, it may be telling that, in three quarters of crashes, there is no signs the motorist sought to prevent the crash."The police force reports also revealed that motorists often did not give way to those in wheelchairs, and the wheelchair users are not adequately observable about 15-percent of the time. The investigators say the research underscores the value that communities construct well-designed curb cuts, ramps, and footpaths to empower individuals who use wheelchairs to securely traverse routes -- much which is needed by the Americans with Disabilities Act.The findings, they create, "underscore the importance of policymakers and planners to completely integrate handicap adjustments into pedestrian infrastructure as well as for individuals using wheelchairs -- and others with handicaps -- to stay a prominent public when highway safety interventions are developed."

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28.11.2015
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