Traffic injury prevention
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This study examined 2-car crashes including one passenger car and one light truck (van, minivan, pickup truck, or sport utility vehicle) and investigated the likelihood of hospitalization, hospitalization charges, and the likelihood of fatality of an occupant by vehicle type differentiating between passengers and drivers. ⋯ Though previous studies have shown high fatality costs associated with light trucks, this study is the first to explore the hospitalization costs associated with these vehicles. The existing traffic liability systems (tort or no-fault systems) likely fail to fully make light trucks accountable for costs they impose on other cars, pedestrians, and other road occupants. Our findings suggest the importance of a close examination of a broad range of cost implications even beyond hospitalization and fatality costs to evaluate the optimal amount of corrective taxes or other corrective policies in future research. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Motor vehicle crash-related injury causation scenarios for spinal injuries in restrained children and adolescents.
Motor vehicle crash (MVC)-related spinal injuries result in significant morbidity and mortality in children. The objective was to identify MVC-related injury causation scenarios for spinal injuries in restrained children. ⋯ Restrained children in nonrollover MVCs with spinal injuries in the CIREN database are most frequently in high-speed frontal crashes, of teenage age, and have vertebral fractures. There are age-specific mechanism patterns that should be further explored. Because even moderate spinal trauma can result in measurable morbidity, future efforts should focus on mitigating these injuries.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Crash characteristics and injury patterns of restrained front seat occupants in far-side impacts.
The study was conducted to determine the association between vehicle-, crash-, and demographic-related factors and injuries to front seat far-side occupants in modern environments. ⋯ The findings are as follows: head and thorax are the more frequently injured body regions, and the prevalence of cranium injuries is similar at both injury severities; thoracic injuries are more prevalent at the MAIS 3+ level; the presence of another front seat occupant plays a role in MAIS 3+ trauma; injuries continue to occur at changes in velocity representative of side impact environments; and mean demographic factors are close to mid-size automotive anthropometry, indicating the need to pursue this line of study. Because data were gathered from only 4 years, it would be important to include additional NASS-CDS database years, rescore injuries from previous years, and analyze other international databases to reinforce these findings for advancing safety for far-side occupants.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Investigating motorists' behaviors in response to supplementary traffic control devices at land surveying work sites.
Since land surveyors working alongside live traffic encounter unique safety challenges there is a great need for innovative and effective traffic control devices (TCDs) that alert motorists approaching short-term land surveying work sites. Unlike the volume of research that has been completed on traditional work zones, however, there is a limited amount of information that has been collected on how motorists respond to TCDs at land surveying work sites. This article aims to fill the void by investigating motorists' behaviors in response to the use of 2 supplementary TCDs at land surveying work sites: portable plastic rumble strips (PPRS) and warning lights. ⋯ The use of supplemental TCDs can greatly contribute to the changes in motorists' behaviors at surveying work sites. The changes in motorists' driving behaviors imply that the motorists reacted favorably to the deployed TCDs at the land-surveying work sites.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Alcohol involvement and other risky driver behaviors: effects on crash initiation and crash severity.
Alcohol-involved drivers or those with blood alcohol concentrations greater than 0.00 percent have more frequent and more severe crashes than other drivers. Alcohol use, because it delays perception and response and impairs coordination, increases the risk of a crash. However, those using alcohol may take additional driving risks, which may also lead to crashes. This study was done to learn whether risks besides alcohol involvement contributed to crash initiation and whether crash severity increased with alcohol involvement or with those other risky behaviors. ⋯ Risky driving behaviors, including alcohol involvement, increased the risk of a crash. Crash severity tended to increase with any risky behavior and to increase further with multiple risky behaviors. Other risky behaviors were associated with both alcohol involvement and crashes. Therefore, if effects from those other risky behaviors were not accommodated for, those effects would confound apparent associations between alcohol involvement and crashes. Therefore, this study's use of multivariate models that accommodated for effects from those other behaviors provided a truer picture of alcohol's association with crashes than simpler models would have. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.