Accident; analysis and prevention
-
Driving is often nominated as problematic by individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorders (WAD), yet driving-related performance has not been evaluated objectively. The purpose of this study was to test driving-related performance in persons with chronic WAD against healthy controls of similar age, gender and driving experience to determine if driving-related performance in the WAD group was sufficiently impaired to recommend fitness to drive assessment. Driving-related performance was assessed using an advanced driving simulator during three driving scenarios; freeway, residential and a central business district (CBD). ⋯ Mean z-scores for the SPI over the three scenarios was statistically lower in the WAD group (-0.3±0.3; P<0.05) but the score was not below the cut-off point for safe driving. There were no differences in the reaction time and missed response ratio in divided attention tasks between the groups (All P>0.05). Assessment of driving in an advanced driving simulator for approximately 15min revealed that driving-related performance in chronic WAD was not sufficiently impaired to recommend the need for fitness to drive assessment.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
To conduct a pilot study to evaluate the predictive value of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test (MoCA) and a brief test of multiple object tracking (MOT) relative to other tests of cognition and attention in identifying at-risk older drivers, and to determine which combination of tests provided the best overall prediction. ⋯ Although the best four-test combination was much better than a single test in identifying at-risk drivers, there is still much work to do in this field to establish test batteries that have both high sensitivity and specificity.