Accident; analysis and prevention
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For many years, to reduce the crash frequency and severity at high-speed signalized intersections, warning flashers have been used to alert drivers of potential traffic-signal changes. Recently, more aggressive countermeasures at such intersections include a speed-limit reduction in addition to warning flashers. While such speed-control strategies have the potential to further improve the crash-mitigation effectiveness of warning flashers, a rigorous statistical analysis of crash data from such intersections has not been undertaken to date. ⋯ It is speculated that, in the presence of potentially heterogeneous driver responses to decreased speed limits, the smaller distances covered during reaction time at lower speeds (allowing a higher likelihood of crash avoidance) and the reduced energy of crashes associated with lower speed limits are not necessarily sufficient to unambiguously decrease the frequency and severity of crashes when the speed-limit reduction is just 5 mi/h. However, they are sufficient to unambiguously decrease the frequency and severity of crashes when the speed-limit reduction is 10 mi/h. Based on this research, speed-limit reductions in conjunction with signal-warning flashers appear to be an effective safety countermeasure, but only clearly so if the speed-limit reduction is at least 10 mi/h.
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There are four primary accident types at steel building construction (SC) projects: falls (tumbles), object falls, object collapse, and electrocution. Several systematic safety risk assessment approaches, such as fault tree analysis (FTA) and failure mode and effect criticality analysis (FMECA), have been used to evaluate safety risks at SC projects. However, these traditional methods ineffectively address dependencies among safety factors at various levels that fail to provide early warnings to prevent occupational accidents. ⋯ The ranks of posterior probabilities from the BN model were highly consistent with the accidents that occurred at each project site. The model accurately provides site safety-management abilities by calculating the probabilities of safety risks and further analyzing the causes of accidents based on their relationships in BNs. In practice, based on the analysis of accident risks and significant safety factors, proper preventive safety management strategies can be established to reduce the occurrence of accidents on SC sites.
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There has been an ongoing debate in Australia and internationally regarding the effectiveness of bicycle helmets in preventing head injury. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of bicycle helmets in preventing head injury amongst cyclists in crashes involving motor vehicles, and to assess the impact of 'risky cycling behaviour' among helmeted and unhelmeted cyclists. This analysis involved a retrospective, case-control study using linked police-reported road crash, hospital admission and mortality data in New South Wales (NSW), Australia during 2001-2009. ⋯ This was also found to be true for particular head injuries such as skull fractures, intracranial injury and open head wounds. Around one half of children and adolescents less than 19 years were not wearing a helmet, an issue that needs to be addressed in light of the demonstrated effectiveness of helmets. Non-helmeted cyclists were more likely to display risky riding behaviour, however, were less likely to cycle in risky areas; the net result of which was that they were more likely to be involved in more severe crashes.
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While belt usage among rear-seat passengers is disproportionately lower than their front-seat counterpart, this may have serious consequences in the event of a crash not only for the unbelted rear-seat passenger but also for the front-seat passengers as well. To quantify that effect, the objective of the study is to evaluate the increased likelihood of driver fatality in the presence of unrestrained rear-seat passengers in a severe frontal collision. U. ⋯ Results using multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of a belt restrained driver sustaining a fatal injury was 137% (95% CI=95%, 189%) higher when the passenger behind the driver was unbelted in comparison to a belted case while the effects of driver age, sex, speed limit, vehicle body type, airbag deployment and driver ejection were controlled in the model. The likelihood of driver fatality due to an unrestrained rear left passenger increased further (119-197%) in the presence of additional unrestrained rear seat passengers in the rear middle or right seats. The results from the study highlight the fact that future advances to front row passive safety systems (e.g. multi-stage airbag deployment) must be adapted to take into account the effect of unrestrained rear-seat passengers.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of driving simulator performance with real driving after alcohol intake: a randomised, single blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial.
The purpose of this study was to establish and validate a driving simulator method for assessing drug effects on driving. To achieve this, we used ethanol as a positive control, and examined whether ethanol affects driving performance in the simulator, and whether these effects are consistent with performance during real driving on a test track, also under the influence of ethanol. Twenty healthy male volunteers underwent a total of six driving trials of 1h duration; three in an instrumented vehicle on a closed-circuit test track that closely resembled rural Norwegian road conditions, and three in the simulator with a driving scenario modelled after the test track. ⋯ This may reflect the lack of perceived danger in the simulator, causing reckless driving in a few test subjects. Overall, the results suggest that SDLP in the driving simulator is a sensitive measure of ethanol impaired driving. The comparison with real driving implies relative external validity of the simulator.