Pedestrian Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ITMA board member Donald Redelmeier is the lead author of a new article titled “Pedestrian Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic” published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. The full article appears here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15598276211058378. The study suggests the COVID pandemic led to a 50-60% reduction in pedestrian activity, a 10-15% reduction in total vehicle miles traveled, and no sustained changes in pedestrian fatalities. The mismatch between mobility and mortality highlights the importance of individual psychology beyond structural factors and reductions in activity.

Acute injuries resulting from accidents involving powered mobility devices (PMDs)

One of the members in the Swedish Traffic Medicine Society, former board member there, Jörgen Lundälv and his associate Anna Carlsson, has written an article about new research that might be of interest to ITMA members also. It deals with accidents and acute injuries in people who use electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters in the traffic environment:

Acute injuries resulting from accidents involving powered mobility devices (PMDs)—Development and outcomes of PMD-related accidents in Sweden
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15389588.2019.1606910

New Book of INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC MEDICINE

New Book of INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC MEDICINE

From our Chinese friends in the ITMA board, Prof. Wang (Immediate Past President) and Prof. Zhou (President Elect) there are news about the traffic medicine situation in China.
Their team have published a new book of INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC MEDICINE ( in Chinese) . It is helpful to improve the traffic medicine in China, they say.
There is also an article on The Road to Reducing Traffic Accidents in China that could help us all to know some work done on traffic safety in China. https://www.sciencemag.org/features/2020/07/road-reducing-traffic-accidents-china.

Impact of medical fitness to drive policies in preventing property damage, injury, and death from motor vehicle collisions in Ontario, Canada

ITMA board member Donald Redelmeier is one of the authors of an important article named “Impact of medical fitness to drive policies in preventing property damage, injury, and death from motor vehicle collisions in Ontario, Canada” recently published “in press” and on line in Journal of Safety Research

It can be found on https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437520301079?dgcid=coauthor

This article evaluates the road safety impact of medical fitness-to-drive policies and road safety losses during the time when medical cases were still under review and the driver still active (no losses found) and what number of crashes that were prevented by the work with evaluating medical driver fitness. Quite a few collisions were prevented but the interventional effect of the medical review program differed by medical condition.

ITMA’s 27th World Conference postponed to 2021

Due to uncertainty surrounding the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, after careful review, we have eventually decided to postpone the 27th ITMA World Conference to 2021, in Tongji University, Shanghai. This is an extremely difficult decision for all of us, however, ITMA’s top priority continues to be the health, well-being, and safety of our global members and partners.
All papers that have been accepted for the proceedings for 27th ITMA will be arranged for presentations (either podium or poster) at ITMA World Conference 2021. The organizers of the 27th ITMA World Conference are continuously working hard to ensure the ITMA World Conference successful.

We are thankful for your continuous trust and strong support. We are looking forward to meeting you again in October 2021 in Shanghai, which will be a great gathering for our old and new friends in the transportation field.

27th ITMA World Conference Organizing Committee.