Can child-pedestrians’ hazard perception skills be enhanced?

• Hazard perception (HP) – the ability to read the road and anticipate future events.
• 7–9-Year-olds’ HP skills were trained in a simulated dome projection environment.
• Training utilized a conceptually innovative approach taken from the driving HP domain.
• Trainees were found to be more aware of potential hazards related to restricted field of view relative to control.
• Child-pedestrians are responsive to training and actively detecting materialized hazards may enrich their ability to cross roads.

ObjectiveTraffic collisions yield a substantial rate of morbidity and injury among child-pedestrians. We explored the formation of an innovative hazard perception training intervention – Child-pedestrians Anticipate and Act Hazard Perception Training (CA2HPT). Training was based upon enhancing participants’ ability to anticipate potential hazards by exposing them to an array of traffic scenes viewed from different angles.MethodTwenty-four 7–9-year-olds have participated. Trainees underwent a 40-min intervention of observing typical residential traffic scenarios in a simulated dome projection environment while engaging in a hazard detection task. Trainees were encouraged to note differences between the scenarios presented to them from separate angles (a pedestrian's point-of-view and a higher perspective angle). Next, trainees and control group members were required to perform crossing decision tasks.ResultsTrainees were found to be more aware of potential hazards related to restricted field of view relative to control.ConclusionsChild pedestrians are responsive to training and actively detecting materialized hazards may enrich child-pedestrians’ ability to cross roads.