Pedestrians are at extremely high risk of death on roads. Intersections, where the paths of people and vehicles come together, can be the most dangerous places for pedestrians. The rural roads in low- and middle-income countries have their unique safety issues, which further endanger pedestrians. This paper focuses on pedestrian safety at intersections on low volume rural roads (rural LVRs). Twenty-eight fatal pedestrian crashes at intersections were collected and analyzed from eight rural LVRs in three provinces in southwest China. First, descriptive statistics were developed to identify any areas of commonality among the crashes. Then the Driving Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM 3.0) was applied to identify details on crash-contributing factors for each driver in each case, resulting in one causation chart per involved driver. Next, the individual charts for each crash type were aggregated based on vehicle trajectory and type, resulting in one causation chart, visualizing the frequency of contributing factors and causation links between factors, per each crash type. Through analysis of crash characteristics and causal patterns, it was found that 1) limited intersection safety design and facilities, 2) inadequate driver training and 3) inadequate pedestrian safety education are the main issues of pedestrian safety at rural intersections. Finally, given the limited resources in rural areas, it was determined that the potential engineering countermeasures should focus on 1) increasing the predictability of pedestrian actions and movement and 2) improving the behaviors of pedestrians and drivers. While the study focuses only on China, it is expected that the results are extensible to other low2 and middle-income states and regions.
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