Using Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health compared the national burden of pedestrian injuries from motor vehicles to that of pedestrian falls occurring on streets and sidewalks and found that the probability of a pedestrian suffering a severe injury is higher for motor vehicle collisions as compared to falls. Yet, the public health burden of the number of pedestrians injured from a fall—severe or otherwise—is significantly higher compared to the number of pedestrians injured by a motor vehicle collision. This is particularly true for individuals 50 years of age or older. The results of this work are published in the Journal of Urban Health(link is external and opens in a new window).