Evaluating the impact of road safety education on child pedestrian fatalities in Malaysia: A 23-year analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of formal Road Safety Education (RSE) on reducing child pedestrian fatalities in Malaysia, focusing on 6-15 years children. The data of pedestrian-vehicle crashs during the period of 2000-2023 were obtained from the MIROS the Secondary Data & Repository System (M-SEDARS) and road crashes data from Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) were used for the analysis. The results showed that pedestrian fatalities were significantly reduce after formal RSE implementation in Malaysia. Data illustrate a dramatic decrease in fatalities for the 6-10 age group, plummeting from 85 cases in 2000 to just 8 cases (90.6%) in 2023, while the 11-15 age group saw a reduction from 34 cases to 5 (85.3%). The average number of fatalities before RSE implementation was 53.57 (SD = 22.89), while post-implementation, this number dropped sharply to 21.06 (SD = 11.64). The reduction is statistically significant with a large effect size, indicating the robustness of the RSE program in safeguarding younger children. Meanwhile, in the older age group, fatalities decreased from an average of 29.29 (SD = 7.06) before RSE implementation to 17.65 (SD = 15.19) afterward. Although the reduction is less dramatic than in the younger age group, it remains statistically significant, reflecting the program's broad impact.