University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, Illinois.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2023;24(1):82-88. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2022.2143236. Epub 2022 Nov 14.
Communities with high rates of pedestrians struck by motor vehicles may miss out on mitigation resources and suffer worse medical outcomes if crashes there go unreported to police. This study investigates the places, people, and communities in Illinois where struck pedestrians are most likely to go unreported. A better understanding of the true burden and distribution of struck pedestrians will help guide policy and direct investments and interventions where they are most needed.
Hospital records of pedestrians treated for injuries sustained by a motor vehicle that were not able to be linked with a corresponding crash report across three consecutive years are investigated. Discordance rates of struck pedestrians are calculated and disaggregated by region. A presentation of summary statistics is accompanied by an ordinary least squares predictive model to estimate the relationship between discordant struck pedestrians and sociodemographic factors.
The incidence of unreported struck pedestrians was not randomly distributed. Blacks struck by a motor vehicle were disproportionately likely to go unreported to police. Zip codes with the most unreported crashes per capita on average had double the poverty rate and 2.6 times the carless household rate as the rest of Illinois. Struck pedestrians diagnosed at the hospital with an intoxicating substance went unreported to police nearly 70% of the time. Generally, more severe head and thorax injuries were more likely to be reported. Struck pedestrians outside of Cook County averaged a 60% discordance rate, those within Cook County averaged a discordance rate of about 50%. Struck pedestrian cases reported to police averaged emergency department charges of about $2,500 more than unreported cases.
Underlying and contributing factors influential of a struck pedestrian's decision of whether to report to police is complex and layered by social constructs mixed with difficult economic decisions, often further complicated by the fog of impairment. Recommendations are made for community outreach to stress the importance of reporting incidents to police, along with adjusting case count numbers in police records using hospital data and discordance rates.
在机动车撞击行人的高发社区，如果这些事故未向警方报告，那么这些社区可能会错失缓解资源，并导致更糟糕的医疗后果。本研究旨在调查伊利诺伊州中，行人最有可能未向警方报告的地点、人员和社区。更好地了解被撞行人的真实负担和分布情况，将有助于指导政策制定，并为最需要的地方提供投资和干预。
研究了连续三年中，因机动车受伤而在医院接受治疗但无法与相应的事故报告相匹配的行人的医疗记录。计算了被撞行人的不匹配率，并按地区进行了细分。同时，还提供了汇总统计数据的说明，并使用普通最小二乘法预测模型来估计不匹配的被撞行人与社会人口因素之间的关系。
未报告的被撞行人的发生率并非随机分布。被机动车撞击的黑人被报告给警方的可能性不成比例地高。人均未报告的事故发生率最高的邮政编码的贫困率是伊利诺伊州其他地区的两倍，无车家庭率是其他地区的 2.6 倍。在医院被诊断为摄入了致醉物质的被撞行人，近 70%的情况下未向警方报告。一般来说，更严重的头部和胸部受伤更有可能被报告。在库克县外的被撞行人的不匹配率平均为 60%，在库克县内的不匹配率平均为 50%。向警方报告的被撞行人案件的急诊费用比未报告的案件平均高出约 2500 美元。
影响被撞行人是否向警方报告的决定的潜在和促成因素复杂，受社会结构的影响，并与艰难的经济决策交织在一起，而这些决策往往因醉酒的影响而变得更加复杂。建议进行社区外展活动，强调向警方报告事件的重要性，同时使用医院数据和不匹配率调整警方记录中的案件数量。
