Accident; analysis and prevention
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Distracted driving is now an increasingly deadly threat to road safety. We provide evidence that intoxicated driving is increasingly responsible for recent increases in fatalities from distracted driving crashes. This study describes trends in deaths on U. ⋯ The fatality rate from these crashes increased from 35.9 to 59.2 deaths per 100 billion vehicle-miles traveled after 2005. Alcohol use is quickly increasing as an important factor behind distracted driving fatalities. This has implications for policies combating distracted driving that do not address the role of alcohol use in distracted driving.
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This work examines the relationship between 3-year pedestrian crash counts across Census tracts in Austin, Texas, and various land use, network, and demographic attributes, such as land use balance, residents' access to commercial land uses, sidewalk density, lane-mile densities (by roadway class), and population and employment densities (by type). The model specification allows for region-specific heterogeneity, correlation across response types, and spatial autocorrelation via a Poisson-based multivariate conditional auto-regressive (CAR) framework and is estimated using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Least-squares regression estimates of walk-miles traveled per zone serve as the exposure measure. ⋯ In comparison, the positive aspatial, bivariate cross correlation of severe (fatal or incapacitating) and non-severe crash rates reflects latent covariates that have impacts across severity levels but are more local in nature (such as lighting conditions and local sight obstructions), along with spatially lagged cross correlation. Results also suggest greater mixing of residences and commercial land uses is associated with higher pedestrian crash risk across different severity levels, ceteris paribus, presumably since such access produces more potential conflicts between pedestrian and vehicle movements. Interestingly, network densities show variable effects, and sidewalk provision is associated with lower severe-crash rates.
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Because of the low percentage of crashes involving buses and the assumption that public transport improves road safety by reducing vehicular traffic, public interest in bus safety is not as great as that in the safety of other types of vehicles. It is possible that less attention is paid to the significance of crashes involving buses because the safety level of bus systems is considered to be adequate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and perceptions of bus managers with respect to safety issues and the potential effectiveness of various technologies in achieving higher safety standards. ⋯ Brake assistance and vehicle monitoring systems were also considered to be very effective. With the exception of driver assistance systems for passenger and pedestrian safety, the perceptions of the importance of other driver assistance systems for vehicle monitoring and bus safety were not unanimous among the bus company managers who participated in this survey. The study results showed that the introduction of new technologies is perceived as an important factor in improving bus safety, but a better understanding of their actual effectiveness and related risk factor avoidance must be developed to permit their useful implementation in bus fleets.
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Driving with alcohol and other psychoactive substances imposes an increased risk of severe injury accidents. In a population-based case-control design, the relative risks of severe driver injury (MAIS≥2) by driving with ten substance groups were approximated by odds ratios (alcohol, amphetamines, benzoylecgonine, cocaine, cannabis, illicit opiates, benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, i.e. zolpidem and zopiclone, medicinal opioids, alcohol-drug combinations and drug-drug combinations). Data from six countries were included in the study: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and the Netherlands. ⋯ For male drivers, the risk of being severely injured by driving with any of the psychoactive substances was about 65% of that of female drivers. For each of the substance groups there was a decrease in the risk of severe driver injury with increasing age. It is concluded that among psychoactive substances alcohol still poses the largest problem in terms of driver risk of getting injured.
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Accident rates and fatality rates for Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) missions have been investigated recently, but none of these studies considered the influence of the seating position in the helicopter. The aim of the present descriptive and observational study was to analyze injury severity depending on the seating position during HEMS accidents in Germany. ⋯ In HEMS accidents, the patients' position and the HEMS crew member rear seat were found to be at the highest risk for fatal or severe injuries. These results support the urgent requirement of a large international data base for HEMS accidents as a basis for further studies to improve the safety in HEMS missions.