Do school crossing guards make crossing roads safer? A quasi-experimental study of pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions in Toronto, Canada

BMC Public Health

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 2015, Pages

  Rothman, Linda ^a,c   Perry, Daniel ^b,d   Buliung, Ron ^e   Macarthur, Colin ^a,e   To, Teresa ^a,e   Macpherson, Alison ^c   Larsen, Kristian ^a,e   Howard, Andrew ^a,b,e,f  

^a Child Health Evaluative Sciences   (Canada)

^b HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN   (Canada)

^c York University   (Canada)

^d UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK   (United Kingdom)

^e UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^f UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

Injuries; Motor vehicles; Prevention; Public health; Schools; Walking

Indexed keywords

ADULT; CHILD; COHORT ANALYSIS; CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY; ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING; HUMAN; INJURIES; LAW ENFORCEMENT; MALE; ONTARIO; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; PREVENTION AND CONTROL; PROCEDURES; RETROSPECTIVE STUDY; SCHOOL; STATISTICS AND NUMERICAL DATA; TRAFFIC ACCIDENT; WALKING; YOUNG ADULT;

ACCIDENTS, TRAFFIC; ADULT; CHILD; COHORT STUDIES; CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES; ENVIRONMENT DESIGN; HUMANS; LAW ENFORCEMENT; MALE; ONTARIO; RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES; SCHOOLS; SECURITY MEASURES; WALKING; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84938352659     PISSN: None     EISSN: 14712458     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-015-2065-y     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. World Health Organization. Injuries and violence: the facts. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2010.
2. World Health Organization. Fact sheet No. 358-road traffic injuries. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2013.
3. Leitch K. Reaching for the Top: a report by the advisor on health children and youth, 2013. Canada: Health Canada; 2007.
4. Public Health Agency of Canada. Injury in review, 2012 Edition: spotlight on road and transport safety. In: Injury in review. Ottawa: Public Health Agency of Canada; 2012.
5. World Health Organization. World report on child injury prevention. In. Edited by Peden M, Oyegbite K, Ozanne-Smith J, Hyder AA, Branche A, Rahman F, Rivara FP, Bartolomeos K, vol. 2013. Geneva, Switzerland; 2008
6. Transport Canada. Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics, 2012. TP 3322: Transport Canada; 2014.
7. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts, 2012 Data: Children. Washington DC: U.S Department of Transportation; 2014.
8. Harten N, Olds T. Physical activity: patterns of active transport in 11-12 year old Australian children. Aus N Z J Public Health. 2004;28(2):167-72.
9. Timperio A, Crawford D, Telford A, Salmon J. Perceptions about the local neighborhood and walking and cycling among children. Prev Med. 2004;38(1):39-47.
10. de Vries SI, Hopman-Rock M, Bakker I, Hirasing RA, van Mechelen W. Built environmental correlates of walking and cycling in Dutch urban children: results from the SPACE study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2010;7(5):2309-24.
11. Active Healthy Kids Canada. Are we driving our kids to unhealthy habits. 2013.
12. Buliung R, Faulkner G, Beesley T, Kennedy J. School travel planning: mobilizing school and community resources to encourage active school transportation. J Sch Health. 2011;81(11):704-12.
13. Active and Safe Routes to School. A program of green communities of Canada. 2013.
14. National Center for Safe Routes to School. Available at [ http://www.iwalktoschool.org ]. Accessed June, 2015.
15. Cragg S, Cameron C, Craig C. 2004 National Transportation Survey. In. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute; 2006
16. Buliung RN, Mitra R, Faulkner G. Active school transportation in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada: an exploration of trends in space and time (1986-2006). Prev Med. 2009;48(6):507-12.
17. Warsh J, Rothman L, Slater M, Steverango C, Howard A. Are school zones effective? An examination of motor vehicle versus child pedestrian crashes near schools. Inj Prev. 2009;15(4):226-9.
18. Panter J, Corder K, Griffin SJ, Jones AP, van Sluijs EM. Individual, socio-cultural and environmental predictors of uptake and maintenance of active commuting in children: longitudinal results from the SPEEDY study. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2013;10(1):83.
19. Mammen G, Faulkner G, Buliung R, Lay J. Understanding the drive to escort: a cross-sectional analysis examining parental attitudes towards children's school travel and independent mobility. BMC Public Health. 2012;12(1):862.
20. Rothman L, To T, Buliung R, Macarthur C, Howard A. Influence of social and built environment features on children's walking to school: an observational study. Prev Med. 2013;60:10-5.
21. Gutierrez CM, Slagle D, Figueras K, Anon A, Huggins AC, Hotz G. Crossing guard presence: impact on active transportation and injury prevention. J Transport Health. 2014;1(2):116-23.
22. Cloutier MS, Apparicio P. Does the neighbouring environment around schools influence child pedestrian accidents risk in Montreal? The contribution of geographically weighted Poisson regression. Revue de géographie et d'aménagement. 2008;1:25-38.
23. Rothman L, Macarthur C, To T, Buliung R, Howard A. Motor vehicle-pedestrian collisions and walking to school: the role of the built environment. Pediatrics 2014, Published online: (doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-2317).
24. Frank LD, Andresen MA, Schmid TL. Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars. Am J Prev Med. 2004;27(2):87-96.
25. Larsen K, Gilliland J, Hess P, Tucker P, Irwin J, He M. The influence of the physical environment and sociodemographic characteristics on children's mode of travel to and from school. Am J Public Health. 2009;99(3):520-6.
26. Stokes ME, Davis CS, Koch GG. Categorical data analysis using the SAS system: SAS institute; 2000
27. Toronto Police Service Board TS. School crossing guard site evaluation program policy, criteria and procedure. 2001.
28. Yiannakoulias N, Smoyer-Tomic KE, Hodgson J, Spady DW, Rowe BH, Voaklander DC. The spatial and temporal dimensions of child pedestrian injury in Edmonton. Can J Public Health. 2002;93(6):447-51.
29. City of Toronto Downtown Transportation Operations Study-Final Report. 2013. Available at [ http://www.cite7.org/WaterlooRegion2014/documents/3B-01-StewartRon.pdf ] Accessed June, 2015.
30. Roberts I, Marshall R, Norton R. Child pedestrian mortality and traffic volume in New Zealand. BMJ. 1992;305(6848):283.
31. Roberts I, Crombie I. Child pedestrian deaths: Sensitivity to traffic volume - Evidence from the USA. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1995;49(2):186-8.
32. Roberts I, Norton R, Taua B. Child pedestrian injury rates: the importance of "exposure to risk" relating to socioeconomic and ethnic differences, in Auckland, New Zealand. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1996;50(2):162-5.