Accident; analysis and prevention
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This paper addresses the economic feasibility of measures to reduce the material damage of transport companies. Results are presented of a series of interviews among transport companies as well as from a postal questionnaire survey. ⋯ Small companies, being the largest group, tend to have an informal culture in which measures are less effective. Especially those measures for which no large investments are needed, which influence the behaviour of drivers and need not to be contracted out, are perceived as attractive by the transport companies.
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Blood samples from 2,500 injured drivers were analysed for alcohol, cannabinoids (measured by the presence of THC), benzodiazepines and stimulants. The relationship between the prevalence and concentration of drugs and the culpability of the driver was examined using an objective method for assessing culpability. There were no significant differences between males and females with respect to culpability. ⋯ For those drivers with benzodiazepines at therapeutic concentrations and above, there was a significant increase in culpability. The relationship between stimulants and culpability was not significant, although a higher proportion of stimulant-positive drivers were culpable compared with drug-free drivers. The combinations of alcohol and THC, and alcohol and benzodiazepines also produced a significant increase in culpability, but this increase was not significantly greater than that produced by alcohol alone.
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Data on the prevalence and hypothesized predictors of falling asleep while driving were gathered through face-to-face interviews with 593 long-distance truck drivers randomly selected at public and private rest areas and routine roadside truck safety inspections. Hypothesized predictor variables related to drivers' typical work and rest patterns, extent of daytime and night-time drowsiness, symptoms of sleep disorder, measures of driving exposure, and demographic characteristics. A sizeable proportion of long-distance truck drivers reported falling asleep at the wheel of the truck: 47.1% of the survey respondents had ever fallen asleep at the wheel of a truck, and 25.4% had fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year. ⋯ Based on multivariate logistic regression, all six factors were predictive of self-reported falling asleep at the wheel. Falling asleep was also associated with not having been alerted by driving over shoulder rumble strips. The results suggest that countermeasures that limit drivers' work hours and enable drivers to get adequate rest and that identify drivers with sleep disorders are appropriate methods to reduce sleepiness-related driving by truck drivers.
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To assess the usefulness of collecting information on near miss and minor injuries for use in planning and evaluating injury prevention programmes for children aged under 5 years in the home environment. ⋯ Although the circumstances surrounding all the incident categories were similar, the numbers were too small to see whether specific injury mechanisms predict future injuries of the same type. It appeared that near miss and minor injuries are of limited use in predicting medically attended injuries, however this hypothesis needs to be tested on a much larger sample.
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The amount and type of burn injuries in The Netherlands are described using Surveillance Systems on treatments at an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department, hospital admissions and fatal injuries and a national survey (to asses treatments by a general practitioner). These data show an estimated 420 persons/year/100,000 inhabitants that are medically treated for burn injuries due to home and leisure accidents in The Netherlands. Fifty percent of all burn injuries concern scalds. ⋯ Clumsiness and inattention are major causes of injuries among young adults. Among the elderly, a quarter of all victims reported health problems or handicaps to be a cause of their injury. Based on the results of our analysis, preventive measures were suggested.