Accident; analysis and prevention
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This paper presents a before-after study of bike boxes at 10 signalized intersections in Portland, Oregon. The bike boxes, also known as advanced stop lines or advanced stop boxes, were installed to increase visibility of cyclists and reduce conflicts between motor vehicles and cyclists, particularly in potential "right-hook" situations. Before and after video were analyzed for seven intersections with green bike boxes, three intersections with uncolored bike boxes, and two control intersections. ⋯ Differences in the traffic volumes and location contexts make firm conclusions about the effects of green coloring of the boxes difficult. Higher shares of surveyed motorists felt that the bike boxes made driving safer rather than more dangerous, even when the sample was narrowed to respondents who were not also cyclists. Over three-quarters of the surveyed cyclists thought that the boxes made the intersection safer.
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This study intends to provide insight into pedestrian accidents by uncovering their patterns in order to design preventive measures and to allocate resources for identified problems. Kohonen neural networks are applied to a database of pedestrian fatal accidents occurred during the four-year period between 2003 and 2006. Results show the existence of five pedestrian accident patterns: (i) elderly pedestrians crossing on crosswalks mostly far from intersections in metropolitan areas; (ii) pedestrians crossing suddenly or from hidden places and colliding with two-wheel vehicles on urban road sections; (iii) male pedestrians crossing at night and being hit by four-wheel vehicles on rural road sections; (iv) young male pedestrians crossing at night wide road sections in both urban and rural areas; (v) children and teenagers crossing road sections in small rural communities. From the perspective of preventive measures, results suggest the necessity of designing education and information campaigns for road users as well as allocating resources for infrastructural interventions and law enforcement in order to address the identified major problems.
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Traffic safety has improved greatly over the past few decades, but the progress in the safe mobility of vulnerable road users (VRUs) - especially motorcycle riders - has not been as consistent. The changing trends towards healthier and eco-friendlier lifestyle, coupled with the rising costs of fuel have increased the exposure and injury risk of pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists, especially in urban areas. To address the safe mobility issues of VRUs, Israel's National Road Safety Authority organized an international conference on the topic. This special issue contains the papers of the three plenary talks related to the safe mobility of each of the VRUs, and 18 more papers of the over 100 papers presented at the conference that were accepted for publication in AAP following the Journal's review process.
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Comparative Study
Is the TMPM-ICD9 revolution in trauma risk-adjustment compatible with imperfect administrative coding?
TMPM-ICD9 is the latest injury-severity measure based on empirical estimation from ICD-9-CM codes. It is candidate to replace expert-based AIS measures worldwide because of easier accessibility and better predictive performances. In Italy and other countries administrative ICD coding is generally less complete than dedicated AIS coding. We attempted to ascertain how this affects TMPM performances. ⋯ The predictive performances of TMPM-ICD9 vs. ISS were lower than in the previous studies; the sub-optimal quality of ICD coding was a main cause. Imperfect administrative coding may hence hamper the TMPM-ICD9 revolution, although in our setting the negligible differences and the ready availability of administrative data may still give reason for adopting TMPM-ICD9.
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Bicycle injuries, particularly those resulting from single bicycle crashes, are underreported in both police and hospital records. Data on cyclist characteristics and crash circumstances are also often lacking. As a result, the ability to develop comprehensive injury prevention policies is hampered. ⋯ There were no gender differences in injury incidence, and respondents who cycled for transport did not have an increased risk of injury. Reporting a serious injury was more likely for those whose injury involved other road users (p<0.03). Along with environmental and behavioural approaches for reducing collisions and near-collisions with motor vehicles, interventions that improve the design and maintenance of cycling infrastructure, increase cyclists' skills, and encourage safe cycling behaviours and bicycle maintenance will also be important for reducing the overall incidence of cycling injuries.