Abstract: To understand the scenarios of vehicle accidents involving pedestrians in Chinese urban traffic, an in-depth accident investigation was conducted in Changsha, China. Accident cases were collected from the Traffic Police Bureau and hospitals from 2001 to 2006. Of the 497 cases collected, there were 446 cases with detailed information from the police, hospital, and retrospective investigations. Fifty-one cases were from on-site investigations. All of the collected cases were documented in a database, called the In-depth Investigation of Vehicle Traffic Accident in Changsha (IVAC). Statistic analysis was conducted using the 497 cases. The results were compared to a study using Swedish TRaffic Accident Data Acquisition (STRADA) data. The fatality rate is more than two times higher in Changsha than in Sweden, while the majority of accidents happened with good lighting conditions and in dry weather for both places. The identified scenarios in Changsha showed a significant difference in distribution compared to that in Sweden.  

Key words: pedestrian accident, urban traffic safety, accident scenario