A new study has suggested that wheelchair users are more likely to be killed in road traffic collisions than pedestrians. Wheelchair users are about three times more at risk of dying in collisions with cars, as per the study published in the online journal BMJ Open.

There are high chances that these accidents will occur at intersections, the study indicated. Men wheelchair users will have to be very careful when they are on a road. The study also suggested that men wheelchair users are at five times higher risk of dying from these collisions that women in wheelchairs.

A report of the United States Department of Transportation showed that approximately 5,000 pedestrians lose their life in road traffic accident every year, while 76,000 get injuries. It is not known that who could be most at risk.

Lead author of the study Dr. John Kraemer from Georgetown's School of Nursing & Health Studies said, “Understanding and describing risks are the first steps to reversing them. While there was a little data on non-fatal pedestrian injuries among people who use wheelchairs, there were almost none on fatal injuries”.

To conduct the study, Kraemer and other researchers collected data from police reports of road traffic accidents in the country. They also included news stories on road accidents to find how many wheelchair users met with car collisions.

According to the researchers, more than 500 wheelchair users lost their lives in road accidents from 2006 to 2012. The results were more than one-third higher than other pedestrians.