Pedestrian Injury Prevention

Revised June 2022

Originally approved January 2016

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) believes that health care professionals providing acute care to adults and children injured in pedestrian accidents have a responsibility to promote programs that prevent and control pedestrian injuries. Pedestrian injuries are a worldwide problem, and there are many established best practices for prevention.

ACEP supports the following educational, engineering, and policy strategies to improve the walking environment and decrease pedestrian injuries.

• Public engagement, education, and outreach to promote a unified, coordinated approach to pedestrian safety.
• Working with government engineers to identify and redesign hazardous intersections as well as to reengineer pedestrian and traffic flow to enhance safety.
• Specific safety measures such as reduced speed limits, physical barriers to prevent contact between pedestrians and vehicles, and improved road lighting.
• Increased police enforcement of moving violations such as speeding, failure to yield to pedestrians, and texting while driving or walking. Public safety officials should provide redirection of traffic flow and barricades to keep vehicles away from large crowds during parades or other mass gatherings along roadways.
• Fully-integrated emergency medical services and trauma care systems to enhance survival and rehabilitation of injured pedestrians.