Pedestrian deaths following collisions with heavy goods vehicles

Pedestrian fatalities following collisions with heavy goods vehicles ('lorr ies') in south-east Scotland were studied between 1992 and 1998. Data sourc es included police and ambulance reports, forensic medicine records, hospit al casenotes and the Scottish Trauma Audit Group database. All injuries wer e scored according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale, yielding Injury Severit y Scores (ISS). Sixteen pedestrians (mean age 60.2 years) died after being hit by a lorry. Actions of pedestrians were implicated in causing all the collisions - four of which appeared to be suicides. Four of the apparently accidental deaths involved pedestrians with significant blood alcohol levels. Thirteen pedes trians were dead when found. Ten pedestrians had an ISS of 75, having a tot al of 13 injuries acknowledged to be unsurvivable (Abbreviated Injury Scale = 6), largely to the head and chest. The unsurvivable injuries reflect huge forces, explaining why only a small proportion of the pedestrians survived to hospital. There is little potenti al to reduce the number of deaths by improving hospital treatment, rather t he focus needs to be directed towards injury prevention. Although pedestria ns appeared to be responsible for the collisions, the results suggest it ma y be more feasible and effective to direct injury prevention measures towar ds lorry drivers.