The Effect of Physical Environment Factors on Child Pedestrian Severity Collisions in Peninsular Malaysia

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
² School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Jiaxing Nanhu University, 572 Yuexiu South Road, Jiaxing 314001, China
³ Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, Taman Kajang Sentral, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia,
⁴ Department of Defence Science, Faculty of Defence Science and Technology, National Defence University of Malaysia, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: mnazri_borhan@ukm.edu.my

Published online: 19 December 2025

Abstract

This study is aimed at investigating the association between child-pedestrian severity levels of collisions and physical environmental variables. The outcome of this study could be applied to road safety intervention for improving engineering modifications related to children pedestrians. The retrospective analysis was carried out using 9-year data from Royal Malaysian Police records from the years 2009 to 2018. Multinomial logit modeling (MNL) was applied. The results demonstrated that the injury severity of the collisions is related to road surface material, traffic system, posted speed limit, lighting conditions, location, type of area and time of collisions. Notably, the findings revealed the importance of more in-depth studies on physical environmental features that relate to child- pedestrians’ severity level of collisions. This is essential for improvements to physical environmental designs by policymakers. Thus, policymakers and stakeholders can utilize the findings to further improve the physical environment through structure and design.