Injuries/Violence
Trends and disparities in pedestrian injuries and fatalities in hit-and-run crashes Liza Lutzker* Liza Lutzker Corinne Riddell Julia Griswold
Hit-and-run (HAR) crashes may yield severe injuries due to delays in emergency medical response. Despite changes in driving after COVID-19’s onset, no studies on HAR trends pre- and post-COVID exist, and while some studies examine environmental risks for HAR, none have examined victim race and gender.
California law enforcement agencies submit crash data to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), including environmental data, party characteristics, injury severity, and HAR status. This descriptive study analyzed 2009-22 SWITRS data for single vehicle-pedestrian HAR crash trends and relationships between HAR, injury severity, and both victim and environmental characteristics pre- and post-COVID.
From 2009-22, the percent of HAR crashes increased from 18 to 28%. The percent of HAR crashes that were fatal or serious injury (FSI) crashes increased from 14 to 31%. Both trends increased in the 2010s, with large increases in 2020 and 2021.
Both pre- and post-COVID, Black pedestrians were more likely to be a HAR victim vs non-Black pedestrians; men were more likely to be a HAR victim vs women. Pre-COVID, across race-gender categories, non-Black females had the lowest proportion of HAR (17%) and Black females had the highest (27%). Post-COVID, non-Black females also had the lowest proportion of HAR (23%), but Black males had the highest (36%). The post- vs pre-COVID HAR rate ratio was greatest for Black males (1.37) and lowest for Black females (1.24).
The percent of HAR crashes in dark hours was higher vs non-dark hours (31 vs 18%) and also slightly higher with street lighting present vs absent (31 vs 29%), conditions where drivers can both observe the race/gender of the victim and also flee in darkness. These results provide the basis for further investigation into driver behavior changes relating to the COVID pandemic and race and gender disparities in HAR outcomes.
