Article

This study had its genesis in a personally observed collision between
a motor vehicle and a motorized wheelchair (electric mobility device) on a busy
street in the middle of the block at an unmarked crossing.
To the observer, at
the time, this appeared to be a suicidal act. This investigation was initiated to
both delineate the number of these crashes nationally and understand this
phenomena as a potentially planned act of self-destruction. DESIGN: An initial
survey of police reports was immediately frustrated by an inability to separate
motor vehicle and electric mobility device collisions from the much larger group
that involved ambulatory citizens because both types were classified together as
"pedestrian" accidents. Instead, the search engine NexisLexis was used to
identify 107 newspaper articles each of which described a motor vehicle and
electric mobility device accident. RESULTS: In the motor vehicle and electric
mobility device collisions, men predominated women (3:1 ratio) with an average
age of 56 yrs. Sixty of these accidents were fatal. Ninety-four percent involved
an electric mobility device and 6% a manual wheelchair. In 50% of the cases, the
motor vehicle was a truck, van, or sport utility vehicle. Fifty percent occurred
at dusk or dawn or at night. The electric mobility device occupant was cited as
the guilty party in 39% of the cases and the driver of the motor vehicle in 27%.
Twenty percent were unwitnessed hit-and-run accidents, whereas "no fault" was
found in 8% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Although many accidents do happen by
chance, when an electric mobility device operator openly challenges busy traffic
by attempting to traverse it in the middle of the block at an unmarked crossing,
predisposing psychosocial factors must also be considered. Hubris or premeditated
self-destructive behavior or both need to be explored as preeminent issues with
reference to the prodromal of the "accident process."

Langue : ANGLAIS