Citation

Sayer JR, Mefford ML. Accid. Reconstr. J. 2007; 17(5): 51-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Accident Reconstruction Journal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite pedestrian deaths having decreased by 16% since 1993, 4,749 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States in 2003. Of these deaths, 35% occurred in daylight. Daytime pedestrian conspicuity, while perhaps not viewed to be as critical based on fatality rates as nighttime conspicuity, still remains a serious issue, particularly as it applies to the design of high-visibility safety apparel for occupations exposed to traffic such as road construction. In this research, a naturalistic, daytime field study was conducted to assess the effects of garment color (fluorescent yellow-green or red-orange, the amount of background material (vest or jacket), pedestrian arm motion (moving or stationary), scene complexity (low or medium), and driver age (young or old) on the conspicuity of personal safety garments. Distances at which drivers of an instrumented research vehicle detected pedestrians outfitted in the fluorescent garments were recorded. Drivers had no prior knowledge of where along a fixed 31-km route pedestrians would be located, nor the number of pedestrians positioned along the route. All challenges normally encountered when driving on public roadways were present (other vehicles, traffic signals/signs, pedestrians, bicyclists), imposing ecologically valid levels of workload on the drivers. Conclusions are provided and discussed.