Pedestrian safety in road traffic in Poland 2007-2024

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24136/tren.2025.010

Keywords:

road safety, road accident, road accident victim, pedestrians in traffic, pedestrians under the influence of alcohol in traffic

Abstract

The article analyzes, based on the data of the National Police Headquarters, the changes in pedestrian safety in road traffic in Poland from 2007 to 2024. Changes in the number of accidents and victims of accidents involving pedestrians and accidents caused by pedestrians were analyzed. The influence of alcohol consumption on pedestrian safety, changes in the causes of accidents caused by pedestrians, the age structure of the injured in accidents and pedestrian perpetrators of accidents were analyzed. The situation of pedestrians was presented against the background of the general traffic situation. The percentage of pedestrians among victims is steadily declining although it is higher than the percentage of accidents. The percentage of accidents involving pedestrians that are caused by pedestrians is decreasing. The percentage of victims of accidents caused by pedestrians under the influence of alcohol in the total number of victims of accidents caused by pedestrians remains high. The age structure of pedestrian victims and pedestrian perpetrators is changing. Selected trend models of various indicators characterizing traffic safety were studied. For the number of accidents caused by pedestrians and pedestrians intoxicated and the number of injured, injured and fatalities, there are well-fitting trend models.

References

European Commission. (2025). Annual statistical report on road safety in the EU, 2025. European Road Safety Observatory. Brussels, European Commission, Directorate General for Transport.

https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/eu-road-fatalities-drop-3-2024-progress-remains-slow-2025-03-18_en

https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/european-road-safety-observatory/statistics-and-analysis-archive/hazardous-behaviourpost-impact-care_en

https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/european-road-safety-observatory/statistics-and-analysis-archive/esafety/alcohol-interlocks_en

Høye A. K., Hesjevoll I.S. (2023). Alcohol and driving-How bad is the combination? A meta-analysis. Traffic Inj Prev. 24(5), 373-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2023.2204984.

Compton R.P., Blomberg R.D., Moskowitz H., et al. (2002). Crash rate of alcohol impaired driving. Proceedings of the sixteenth International Conference on Alcohol. Drugs and Traffic Safety ICADTS, Montreal.

Compton R.P., Blomberg R.D. (2015). Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk. HTSA’S Office of Behavioral Safety Research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240629941_Crash_Risk_of_Alcohol_Impaired_Driving.

Isalberti C., Van der Linden T., Legrand S.-A., et al. (2011). Prevalence of alcohol and other psychoactive substances in injured and killed drivers. DRUID Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines.

Głąbicka-Auleytner K. (2023). Road safety and alcohol consumption by drivers. Journal of civil engineering and transport. 5(4), 9-14, ISSN 2658-1698, e-ISSN 2658-2120, https://doi.org/10.24136/tren.2023.013.

Alsop R. (2020). Drink Driving as the Commonest Drug Driving—A Perspective from Europe. IJERPH, 17(24), 9521; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249521.

Francesconi M., James J. (2021). None for the Road? Stricter Drink Driving Laws and Road Accidents, Journal of Health Economics. 79, 102487. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jhealeco.2021.102487

Rozporządzenie Prezesa Rady Ministrów z dnia 30 grudnia 2021 r. zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie wysokości grzywien nakładanych w drodze mandatów karnych za wybrane rodzaje wykroczeń (Prime Minister's Decree of December 30, 2021 amending the Decree on the amount of fines imposed by way of criminal fines for selected types of offenses). DzU z 2021 poz. 2484.

Rozporządzenie Ministra Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji z dnia 15 września 2022 r. w sprawie ewidencji kierujących pojazdami naruszających przepisy ruchu drogowego (Decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration of September 15, 2022, on records of vehicle drivers violating traffic regulations). DzU z 2022 r., poz. 1951.

Ustawa z dnia 7 lipca 2022 r. o zmianie ustawy – Kodeks karny oraz niektórych innych ustaw (Law of July 7, 2022, amending the Criminal Code and certain other laws). DzU 2022 poz. 2600.

Dąbrowska-Lorenc M., Sicińska K.( 2021). Survey of pedestrians and car drivers’ attitudes at the area of pedestrian crossings over period of time. Transport Problems. 16(4). DOI: 10.21307/tp-2021-060.

Xin X., Jia N., Ling S., He Z. (2023). The effect of the ‘yield to pedestrians’ policy on risky pedestrian behaviors: Is it a ‘two-edged sword’?, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 178, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103870.

Szagala P., Brzezinski A., Kiec M., et al. (2022). Pedestrian Safety at Midblock Crossings on Dual Carriageway Roads in Polish Cities. Sustainability, MDPI, 14(9), 1-13. RePEc:gam: jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5703-:d:811299.

Dębowska-Mróz M., Ferensztajn-Galardos E., Krajewska R., Rogowski A., Methods for Safety Assessment of Unprotected Road Traffic Users. Transport Means 2018, Proceedings of the 22nd International Scientific Conference Part I, 57-65, ISSN 1822-296 X (print) ISSN 2351-7034 (on-line).

European Commission. (2021). Road safety thematic report – Pedestrians. European Road Safety Observatory. Brussels, European Commission, Directorate General for Transport.

Gua X., et al. (2023). Rethinking infrastructure design: evaluating pedestrians and VRUs’ psychophysiological and behavioral responses to different roadway designs. Scientific Reports. 13, 4278. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31041-9

https://statystyka.policja.pl/st/ruch-drogowy/76562,wypadki-drogowe-raporty-roczne.html.

Rogowski A. (2025). Influence of alcohol on road safety in Poland 2007-2023. Journal of civil engineering and transport. 7(2), 107-131, ISSN 2658-1698, e - ISSN 2658-2120, DOI: 10.24136/tren. 2025.008.

Rogowski A. (2012). Podstawy metod probabilistycznych w transporcie (The Basics of Probabilistic Methods in Transport), Monographs series, 175, Publishing House of the University of Technology and Humanities, Radom. ISSN 1642-5278.

Savin N.E., White K.J. (1977). The Durbin-Watson Test for Serial Correlation with Extreme Sample Sizes or Many Regressors. Econometrica,45, 1989-1996.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-30

Issue

Section

Articles