Accident; analysis and prevention
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Previous studies have suggested that rear seat occupants are at lower risk of serious injury and death in crashes. However, over the last 10-15 years there have been significant changes in front seat safety systems. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is still a benefit for rear seated occupants compared to front seat occupants. ⋯ For adults over 50 years, the rear seat carried a higher risk in both older and newer vehicles, and for 9-15 year olds, the rear seat carried a lower risk. These findings suggest that safety for front seat occupants has improved over the last decade, to the point where, for occupants over 15 years of age, the front seat is safer than the rear seat. While the benefit of rear seating for children aged 9-15 years has decreased over time, they are still at lower risk in the rear seat.
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This article evaluates, by means of multivariate regression, critical factors influencing the collisions of motor vehicles with adult (over 17 years) cyclists that result in fatal injury of cyclists. The analysis is based on the database of the Traffic Police of Czech Republic from the time period 1995-2007. The results suggest that the most consequential categories of factors under study are: inappropriate driving speed of automobile; the head-on crash; and night-time traffic in places without streetlights. ⋯ The most vulnerable age group are cyclists above 65 years. A fatal injury of a cyclist is more often driver's fault than cyclist's (598 vs. 370). In order to reduce the fatal risk, it is recommended to separate the road traffic of motor vehicles from bicyclists in critical road-sections; or, at least, to reduce speed limits there.
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Comparative Study
Traffic calming along rural highways crossing small urban communities: driving simulator experiment.
The paper investigated drivers' speed behaviour in a section of a rural highway crossing a small urban community in the existing scenario without any traffic calming device and in two different design scenarios with traffic calming in the urban community. Two gateways and four integrative traffic calming devices along the route within the urban area were tested. The gateways were aimed at slowing down the vehicles entering in the built-up area, while the traffic calming devices were aimed at complementing the gateway effect inside the built-up area. ⋯ Along the urban community, a statistically significant mean speed reduction ranging between 9 and 15 km/h was observed in the south direction. In the north direction, speed reduction was not statistically significant. Overall, combined results of cluster analysis and statistical tests showed that the treatments were more effective in the direction with higher speeds in the base scenario.
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Examining the influence of aggressive driving behavior on driver injury severity in traffic crashes.
In this paper, we capture the moderating effect of aggressive driving behavior while assessing the influence of a comprehensive set of variables on injury severity. In doing so, we are able to account for the indirect effects of variables on injury severity through their influence on aggressive driving behavior, as well as the direct effect of variables on injury severity. The methodology used in the paper to accommodate the moderating effect of aggressive driving behavior takes the form of two models--one for aggressive driving and another for injury severity. ⋯ Situational, vehicle, and roadway factors such as young drivers traveling with young passengers, young drivers driving an SUV or a pick-up truck, driving during the morning rush hour, and driving on roads with high speed limits are also found to trigger aggressive driving behavior. In terms of vehicle occupants, the safest situation from a driver injury standpoint is when there are two or more passengers in the vehicle, at least one of whom is above the age of 20 years. These and many other results are discussed, along with implications of the result for graduated driving licensing (GDL) programs.
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A typical hazard perception test presents participants with a single-screen view of the road ahead. This study assessed how increasing this field of view would affect hazard perception abilities. Drivers were shown video clips of driving situations containing at least one hazard either on a single screen, or with the addition of side views on two separate but adjacent screens that extended the perceived worldview to approximately 180 degrees. ⋯ A number of reasons for the three-screen advantage are discussed. This study suggests that even responses to central hazards may be under-estimated in a typical single-screen hazard perception test, and that improvements can be made for new hazard perception tests, by including visual information from the side and from behind the driver. This new methodology not only allows testing hazard perception skills in a potentially more immersive and realistic environment, but also enables to create hazard perception clips that cannot be realised in a typical single-screen test.