Traffic injury prevention
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Detailed analysis of pedestrian casualty collisions in Victoria, Australia.
Pedestrian road trauma is significant in Australia and requires in-depth understanding to improve or inform new countermeasures. Analyses on single data sources can be limited. This study investigated demographic, behavioral, environmental, and collision characteristics of pedestrian injury in Victoria, Australia, over a 5-year period using multiple data sources. ⋯ Findings indicate pedestrian serious injury rates are increasing and identify targets for countermeasures. Inherent limitations present in each relevant data collection require mutliple data sets to be explored and results contrasted. Jurisdictions seeking to determine pedestrian injury risk factors should aim to link police and hospital data for a complete analysis.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Explaining Chile's traffic fatality and injury reduction for 2000-2012.
The objective of the current study is to determine the contribution of Chile's 2005 traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road investment infrastructure to the reduction of traffic fatalities and severe injuries from 2000 to 2012. ⋯ Results suggest that traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road infrastructure investment have complex interwoven effects that can reduce both traffic fatalities and severe injuries. Though traffic reforms are ultimately designed to change road user behaviors at large, it is also important to acknowledge that legislative changes may require institutional changes--that is, intensification of police enforcement--and be supported by road infrastructure investment, in order to effectively decrease traffic fatalities and injuries. Furthermore, depending on how road safety measures are designed, coordinated, and implemented, their effects on different types of road users vary. The case of Chile illustrates how the diffusion of road safety practices globally promoted by the World Health Organization and World Bank, particularly in 2004, can be an important influence to enhance national road safety practices.
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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
Prognosis of outcome in adult survivors of road accidents in France: one-year follow-Up in the ESPARR cohort.
The consequences of road crashes are various, and few studies have dealt with the multidimensionality of outcomes. The aim of the present study was to assess the multidimensional nature of outcomes one year after a crash and to determine predictive factors that could help in adapting medical and social care to prevent such consequences to improve road crash victims' prognosis. ⋯ One year after the crash, victims may still be experiencing multiple problems in terms of not only physical health but also of mental health, social life, and environment. Poor outcome may be predicted from both accident-related factors and socioeconomic fragility. Our results are useful in catching the attention of both clinicians and the public administration regarding victims at risk of suffering from important consequences after an accident. If those suffering head injuries are recognized, it would be very important to better consider and treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or PCS. Furthermore, subjects from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, with or without lower limb injuries, have numerous difficulties after an accident, notably for returning to work. An objective would be to provide them with more specific support. 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
Road safety from the perspective of driver gender and age as related to the injury crash frequency and road scenario.
The objective of this research is to develop safety performance functions (SPFs) on 2-lane rural roads to predict the number of injury crashes per year per 10(8) vehicles/km on the road segment using a study on the influence of the human factors (gender, age, number of drivers) and road scenario (combination of infrastructure and environmental conditions found at the site at the time of the crash) on the effects of a crash by varying the dynamic. Countermeasures are suggested to reduce the injury crash rate and include different awareness campaigns and structural measures on the segments of road. ⋯ According to the current study, based on the network approach for the allocation of economic resources and planning of road safety strategies, calibration of injury crash rate prediction models for specific target collision type is important because of the range of harms that are caused by different collision types. From these studies it is apparent that the age and gender of drivers considered together further refines how those factors contribute to crashes. Countermeasures (structural road interventions and/or safety awareness campaigns) can be planned to reduce the highest rate of injury crash for each gender and road scenario: the awareness campaigns cannot be generalized or vague but must be organized by age and gender, because this study shows that crash dynamics alter as these factors change, with consideration for the varying psychological traits of the driver groups. Before-and-after safety evaluations can be used to check the safety benefits of improvements carried out on the roadways, within budget constraints for improvement or safety compliance investments for future operation. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.