Accident; analysis and prevention
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Thoracic trauma secondary to motor vehicle crashes (MVC) continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Specific vehicle features may increase the risk of severe thoracic injury when striking the occupant. We sought to determine which vehicle contact points were associated with an increased risk of severe thoracic injury in MVC to focus subsequent design modifications necessary to reduce thoracic injury. ⋯ Several vehicle contact points, including the steering wheel, door panel, armrest and seat are associated with an increased risk of severe thoracic injury when striking the occupant. These elements need to be further investigated to determine which characteristics need to be manipulated in order to reduce thoracic trauma during a crash.
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This study evaluated the relationship between employees' work shift (i.e., day shift versus night shift) and perceptions of injury risk, and how the relationship is affected by company level safety climate and injury frequency. The results showed that night shift workers perceived a higher level of injury risk compared to day shift workers. ⋯ However, this pattern was not noticeable for day shift workers. These findings highlighted the importance of considering company level factors when attempting to understand the differences between day shift and night shift work on an individual's perception of injury risk.
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Emergency presentations by bicyclists and motorcyclists are often the result from a fall or non-motor vehicle collision that occurred in off-road locations. Consequently, they are unlikely to be captured by police records. If the injury is not severe enough to warrant hospitalisation, they will also not be captured by the hospital admission system. ⋯ Multivariate logistic regression analysis further showed that the crash location and road type affected hospitalisation for both groups. Although, crashes occurring in rural areas contributed 14% of the events overall, their adjusted risk of hospitalisation increased five times when compared to metropolitan locations. Crash preventive measures targeting rural areas should be considered to further improve the safety of bicyclists and motorcyclists.
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Efficient geometric design and signal timing not only improve operational performance at signalized intersections by expanding capacity and reducing traffic delays, but also result in an appreciable reduction in traffic conflicts, and thus better road safety. Information on the incidence of crashes, traffic flow, geometric design, road environment, and traffic control at 262 signalized intersections in Hong Kong during 2002 and 2003 are incorporated into a crash prediction model. ⋯ The results for the incidence of slight injury crashes reveal that the road environment, degree of curvature, and presence of tram stops are significant factors, and that traffic volume has a diminishing effect on the crash risk. The presence of tram stops, number of pedestrian streams, road environment, proportion of commercial vehicles, average lane width, and degree of curvature increase the risk of KSI crashes, but the effect of traffic volume is negligible.
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This study attempts to evaluate the injury risk of pedestrian casualties in traffic crashes and to explore the factors that contribute to mortality and severe injury, using the comprehensive historical crash record that is maintained by the Hong Kong Transport Department. The injury, demographic, crash, environmental, geometric, and traffic characteristics of 73,746 pedestrian casualties that were involved in traffic crashes from 1991 to 2004 are considered. Binary logistic regression is used to determine the associations between the probability of fatality and severe injury and all contributory factors. ⋯ To verify the goodness-of-fit of the proposed model, the Hosmer-Lemeshow test and logistic regression diagnostics are conducted. It is revealed that there is a decreasing trend in pedestrian injury risk, controlling for the influences of demographic, road environment, and other risk factors. In addition, the influences of pedestrian behavior, traffic congestion, and junction type on pedestrian injury risk are subject to temporal variation.