Accident; analysis and prevention
-
Comparative Study
Exploring differential trends in severe and fatal child pedestrian injury in New South Wales, Australia (1997-2006).
The study explores trends in severe and fatal child pedestrian injuries in New South Wales (NSW), over the 10-year period 1997-2006, in comparison to adults and for various subgroups. Data on pedestrian injury (reported as fatalities or hospitalisations) were obtained from the Traffic Accident Database System (TADS; Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales) which captures road traffic events reported to police, and from the NSW Admitted Patients Data Collection (APDC) which captures all hospital inpatient separations. Annual percentage changes in injury counts and rates were compared using Poisson regression. ⋯ Past research suggests that injury rate reductions are not solely due to decreased exposure. There remains, however, limited data on the extent of pedestrian mobility. Differences in relative reduction in pedestrian injury rates suggest a differential benefit arising from road safety initiatives.
-
This study compared the ability of binary logistic regression (BLR) and non-linear causal resource analysis (NCRA) to utilize a range of cognitive, sensory-motor, personality and demographic measures to predict driving ability in a sample of cognitively healthy older drivers. Participants were sixty drivers aged 70 and above (mean=76.7 years, 50% men) with no diagnosed neurological disorder. Test data was used to build classification models for a Pass or Fail score on an on-road driving assessment. ⋯ However, leave-one-out cross-validation reduced sensitivity in both models and particularly reduced specificity for NCRA. Neither model is accurate enough to be relied on solely for determination of driving ability. The lowered accuracy of the models following leave-one-out cross-validation highlights the importance of investigating models beyond classification alone in order to determine a model's ability to generalize to new cases.
-
Comparative Study
Triage and Injury Severity Scores as predictors of mortality and hospital admission for injuries: a validation study.
Many emergency departments use a rating system to establish priority based on urgency: "triage". The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of triage in predicting hospitalization and mortality compared to that of the ICD-9-CM based Injury Severity Score (ISS). ⋯ The agreement between the two scales confirms the validity of triage as a clinical management tool in the emergency department, and as a proxy of trauma severity.
-
Previous studies have suggested that rear seat occupants are at lower risk of serious injury and death in crashes. However, over the last 10-15 years there have been significant changes in front seat safety systems. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is still a benefit for rear seated occupants compared to front seat occupants. ⋯ For adults over 50 years, the rear seat carried a higher risk in both older and newer vehicles, and for 9-15 year olds, the rear seat carried a lower risk. These findings suggest that safety for front seat occupants has improved over the last decade, to the point where, for occupants over 15 years of age, the front seat is safer than the rear seat. While the benefit of rear seating for children aged 9-15 years has decreased over time, they are still at lower risk in the rear seat.
-
This article evaluates, by means of multivariate regression, critical factors influencing the collisions of motor vehicles with adult (over 17 years) cyclists that result in fatal injury of cyclists. The analysis is based on the database of the Traffic Police of Czech Republic from the time period 1995-2007. The results suggest that the most consequential categories of factors under study are: inappropriate driving speed of automobile; the head-on crash; and night-time traffic in places without streetlights. ⋯ The most vulnerable age group are cyclists above 65 years. A fatal injury of a cyclist is more often driver's fault than cyclist's (598 vs. 370). In order to reduce the fatal risk, it is recommended to separate the road traffic of motor vehicles from bicyclists in critical road-sections; or, at least, to reduce speed limits there.