Journal of safety research
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Safety of pedestrians depends, among other factors, on their behavior while crossing the road. This study aims to assess behaviors of pedestrians at signalized crosswalks. ⋯ Use of the Health Belief Model for pedestrian safety are discussed.
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Falls among older adults are a significant health concern affecting more than a quarter of older adults (age 65+). Certain fall risk factors, such as medication use, increase fall risk among older adults (age 65+). ⋯ SSRI and SNRI are associated with increased risk of falling after adjusting for important confounders. Medication use is a modifiable fall risk factor in older adults and can be targeted to reduce risk of falls. Practical Applications: Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors increased the risk of falling in older adults by approximately 30%, even after controlling for demographic, functional, and health characteristics, including depression. Health care providers can work towards reducing fall risk among their older patients by minimizing the use of certain medications when potential risks outweigh the benefits.
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Motorcyclists are exposed to more fatalities and severe injuries per mile of travel as compared to other vehicle drivers. Moreover, crashes that take place at intersections are more likely to result in serious or fatal injuries as compared to those that occur at non-intersections. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the contributing factors to motorcycle crash severity at intersections. ⋯ The results of the model demonstrated that certain factors increased the probability of fatal injuries. These factors were: motorcyclists aged over 59 years, weekend crashes, midnight/early morning crashes, morning rush hours crashes, multiple vehicles involved in the crash, t-intersections, crashes in towns, crashes in rural areas, stop or give-way intersections, roundabouts, and uncontrolled intersections. By contrast, factors such as female motorcyclists, snowy or stormy or foggy weather, rainy weather, evening rush hours crashes, and unpaved roads reduced the probability of fatal injuries. Practical Applications: The results from our study demonstrated that certain treatment measures for t-intersections may reduce the probability of fatal injuries. An effective way for improving the safety of stop or give-way intersections and uncontrolled intersections could be to convert them to all-way stop controls. Further, it is recommended to educate the older riders that with ageing, there are physiological changes that occur within the body which can increase both crash likelihood and injury severity.
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It is widely agreed that highway work zones pose significant threats to road users because driving conditions in work zones are quite different from the normal ones, particularly when traffic volumes approach a highway capacity. Therefore, work zone safety is a critical aspect for state agencies and traffic engineers. ⋯ The effect of time of day on injury severity of work-zone related crashes should be modeled separately rather than using a holistic model. Practical applications: As a starting point, findings of the current study can be used by transportation officials to reduce fatalities and injuries of work zone crashes by identifying factors that uniquely contribute to each time of day period.
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Understanding the shortcomings of child-pedestrians in evaluating traffic situations may contribute to producing intervention techniques that may increase their awareness to potential hazards as well as inform and inspire designers of autonomous vehicle and infrastructure systems to deal with the complications of crossing pedestrians. ⋯ Findings suggested that youngsters may be highly influenced by cueing. Next, pedestrians' HP was tested using a crossing decision task. Participants observed traffic scenes presented in a dynamic simulated environment of an urban road from a pedestrian's perspective and pressed a response button whenever they assumed it was safe to cross. Compared to experienced-adults and 7-8-year-olds, 9-13-year-olds presented a less decisive performance. Compared to previous findings regarding simpler road crossing configurations, most participants, regardless of age, related more to the approaching vehicles and presence of a pedestrian crossing while refraining from addressing the road configuration. Implications for road-safety are discussed.