Dear Colleagues,

Road traffic injuries are a major public health issue. According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die annually in road collisions worldwide. An overwhelming majority of traffic deaths and injuries involve vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists.

To lessen the fatalities and casualties, road crash data are analyzed throughout the world. Because some interventions based on analyses in one area might be effective for other regions, an epidemiological approach is indispensable. A subsequent global traffic safety network would improve road safety in both developed and developing countries.

Improvements in medical techniques and prehospital care have, of course, reduced the fatality of traffic collisions. Deep analyses of traffic injuries have helped clinicians to consider the mechanism of injury when attending to a patient and making an initial diagnosis. As the trends of traffic collisions may change in accordance with the development of traffic in society, further knowledge about traffic injuries may be required.

The recent development of vehicle safety systems has greatly contributed to decreases in fatality and injury severity. For passenger safety, most vehicles are equipped with three-point seatbelt systems and airbags. Furthermore, as predicting a collision before it happens helps to reduce the damage caused, pre-crash safety technologies have been developed. Pre-crash brake assist may decrease the impact speed, and pre-crash seatbelt retraction may reduce the severity of passenger injuries. However, both the effects and limitations of these systems must be confirmed to further develop safety systems.

In traffic collisions, because the kinematics of the person involved differs depending on the collision velocity, type of vehicle, and the person’s age and size, the analyses are varied. Crash tests using several types of dummy models and computer simulations with finite element models have been applied to the investigation of the kinematics of the person involved and the prediction of injuries. Further research may elucidate the thresholds of human injuries, which may provide basic knowledge for developing next-stage safety systems.

Various potential technological solutions for automated driving have been developed in recent years. The obtainment of new information regarding automated driving through this Special Issue is expected. The impact of advancements in mobility with the introduction of autonomous vehicles would be visible on highways connecting urban areas; however, this system would not be beneficial in rural areas, in which irregular roads and circumstances that may confound the sensing techniques of automated vehicles are prevalent. Furthermore, when overtaking is required, the driver must drive the vehicle manually. There are still many problems to be solved in the introduction of self-driving vehicles. Therefore, despite developments in automated vehicle technology and systems, human drivers must still be responsible for safe vehicle driving for the next several years.

As road traffic injury is now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years worldwide, this Special Issue will focus on vulnerable road users, e.g., children, pregnant women, elderly people, pedestrians, and bicyclists. There has been some progress in the planning, design, and operation of road environments. The enforcement of the law and safety standards have also contributed to safety promotion. Education on a wide variety of these issues is indispensable for road users.

This Special Issue aims to gather manuscripts that will contribute to the development of traffic injury research and injury prevention in the following fields:

• Epidemiology;
• Biomechanics;
• Traumatology;
• Psychology;
• Forensic Medicine and Legal Science;
• Preventive Medicine
• Mechanical Engineering
• Health Science.

Prof. Masahito Hitosugi
Guest Editor

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• Fatality, casualty
• Safety system (seatbelt, airbag)
• Pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist
• Vehicle driver, passenger
• Frontal collision, side collision, rear-end collision
• Injuries (head, neck, face, chest, abdomen, extremities)
• Pre-crash safety
• Automated driving
• Fetus, child, adolescent, elderly person
• Simulation, FE model
• Crash test
• Law, safety standards
• Environment
• Education