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
Comparative StudyEstimating rear-end accident probabilities at signalized intersections: a comparison study of intersections with and without green signal countdown devices.
Rear-end accidents are the most common accident type at signalized intersections, because the diversity of actions taken increases due to signal change. Green signal countdown devices (GSCDs), which have been widely installed in Asia, are thought to have the potential of improving capacity and reducing accidents, but some negative effects on intersection safety have been observed in practice; for example, an increase in rear-end accidents. ⋯ GSCDs helped shorten indecision zones and reduce rear-end collisions near the stop line during the yellow interval, but they easily resulted in risky car following behavior and much higher rear-end collision probabilities at indecision zones during both flashing green and yellow intervals. GSCDs are recommended to be cautiously installed and education on safe driving behavior should be available.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Comparative StudyA comparison of KABCO and AIS injury severity metrics using CODES linked data.
The research objective is to compare the consistency of distributions between crash assigned (KABCO) and hospital assigned (Abbreviated Injury Scale, AIS) injury severity scoring systems for 2 states. The hypothesis is that AIS scores will be more consistent between the 2 studied states (Maryland and Utah) than KABCO. ⋯ This analysis examines the distribution of 2 injury severity metrics different in both design and collection and found that both classifications are consistent within each state from 2006 to 2008. However, the distribution of both KABCO and Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) varies between the states. MAIS was found to be more consistent between states than KABCO.
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
Development and validation of the Spanish Hazard Perception Test.
The aim of the current study is to develop and obtain valid evidence for a hazard perception test suitable for the Spanish driving population. To obtain valid evidence to support the use of the test, the effect of hazardous and quasi-hazardous situations on the participants' hazard prediction is analyzed and the pattern of results for drivers with different driving experience--that is, learner, novice, and expert drivers and reoffender vs. nonoffender drivers--is compared. Potentially hazardous situations are those that develop without involving any real hazard (i.e., the driver did not actually have to decelerate or make any evasive maneuver to avoid a potential collision). The current study analyzed repeat offender drivers attending compulsory reeducation programs as a result of reaching the maximum number of penalty points on their driving license due to repeated violations of traffic laws. ⋯ The test has adequate psychometric properties and is useful in distinguishing between learner, novice, and expert drivers. In addition, it is useful in that it analyzes the performance of both safe and unsafe drivers (reoffenders who have already lost their driving license).
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Traffic injury prevention · Jan 2014
The benefits and tradeoffs for varied high-severity injury risk thresholds for advanced automatic crash notification systems.
The objectives of this study are to (1) characterize the population of crashes meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended 20% risk of Injury Severity Score (ISS)>15 injury and (2) explore the positive and negative effects of an advanced automatic crash notification (AACN) system whose threshold for high-risk indications is 10% versus 20%. ⋯ This article provides important information comparing the expected positive and negative effects of an AACN system with thresholds at the 10% and 20% levels using 2 outcome metrics. Overall, results suggest that the 20% risk threshold would not provide a useful notification to improve the quality of care for a large number of seriously injured crash victims. Alternately, a lower threshold may increase the over triage rate. Based on the vehicle damage observed for crashes reaching and exceeding the 10% risk threshold, we anticipate that rescue services would have been deployed based on current Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) practices.