Accident; analysis and prevention
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Commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers in the US may start a new duty cycle after taking a 34-h restart break. A restart break provides an opportunity for sleep recuperation to help prevent the build-up of fatigue across duty cycles. However, the effectiveness of a restart break may depend on its timing, and on how many nighttime opportunities for sleep it contains. ⋯ During duty cycles preceded by a restart break with only one nighttime period, drivers also experienced more lapses of attention on the PVT-B and increased lane deviation at night, and they reported greater subjective sleepiness. Importantly, drivers exhibited a predominantly nighttime-oriented sleep schedule during the restart break, regardless of whether the restart break contained only one or more than one nighttime period. Consistent with findings in laboratory-based studies of the restart break, the results of this naturalistic field study indicate that having at least two nighttime periods in the restart break provides greater opportunity for sleep recuperation and helps to mitigate fatigue.
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Due to its direct impact on the safety and function of organizations, occupational health has been a concern of the construction industry for many years. The inherent complexity of occupational health management presents challenges that make a systems approach essential. From a systems perspective, health is conceptualized as an emergent property of a system in which processes operating at the individual and organizational level are inextricably connected. ⋯ The data were analyzed using statistical techniques such as factor analysis, reliability testing, Pearson correlation analysis, multiple regression modeling, and structural equation modeling. Theories of coping behaviors and health performance tend to focus on the isolated causal effects of single factors and/or posits the model at single, individual level; while industrial practices on health management tend to focus on organizational policy and training. By developing the I-CB-HP-O health management system, incorporating individual, interpersonal, and organizational perspectives, this study bridges the gap between theory and practice while providing empirical support for a systems view of health management.
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Few studies have comprehensively evaluated the effectiveness of multi-faceted interventions intended to improve pedestrian safety. "Watch for Me NC" is a multi-faceted, community-based pedestrian safety program that includes widespread media and public engagement in combination with enhanced law enforcement activities (i.e., police outreach and targeted pedestrian safety operations conducted at marked crosswalks) and low-cost engineering improvements at selected crossings. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of the law enforcement and engineering improvement components of the program on motor vehicle driver behavior, specifically in terms of increased driver yielding to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. ⋯ This study provides evidence that enhanced enforcement and low-cost engineering improvements, as a part of a broader program involving community-based outreach, can increase driver yielding to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. These data are important for the staff and decision-makers involved in pedestrian safety programs to gain a better understanding of the different engineering and behavioral mechanisms that could be used to improve driver yielding rates.
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Design for safety (DfS) (also known as prevention through design, safe design and Construction (Design and Management)) promotes early consideration of safety and health hazards during the design phase of a construction project. With early intervention, hazards can be more effectively eliminated or controlled leading to safer worksites and construction processes. DfS is practiced in many countries, including Australia, the UK, and Singapore. ⋯ The questionnaire and findings in this study provided the foundation for a baseline survey with larger sample size, which is currently being planned. In contrast to earlier studies, the study showed that the responding C&S engineers were supportive of the DfS. The study showed that the key to improving the DfS KAP of C&S engineers is by improving clients' motivation for DfS.
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Although safety inspections carried out by government officers are important for the prevention of accidents, there is little in-depth knowledge on their outcomes and processes leading to these. This research deals with this gap by using systems thinking (ST) as a lens for obtaining insights into safety inspections in construction sites. ⋯ The studies were undertaken over 6 years, and sources of evidence involved participant observation, direct observations, analysis of documents and interviews. Two complementary ways for obtaining insights into inspections, based on ST, were identified: (i) the design of the study itself needs to be in line with ST; and (ii) data collection and analysis should focus on the agents involved in the inspections, the interactions between agents, the constraints and opportunities faced by agents, the outcomes of interactions, and the recommendations for influencing interactions.