Search

• This is one of the few studies to experimentally study optimism bias in military personnel. • The study results will be of interest to a wide spectrum of academics and non-academic audiences (police, policymakers, fire and rescue services, military bases). • With car accidents representing the main cause of death for individuals and young military personnel aged 16–25 years, the present results have clear implications for the design and implementation of preventive programs across the globe. • The results will be of interest to the general public as well as a range of media outlets. High numbers of young military personnel die due to road traffic collisions (RTCs). Yet, there is a paucity of research related to the contributing factors (i.e., optimism bias and willingness to take risks) associated with RTCs and the examination of road safety education program tailored at reducing young military fatalities. In order to address this gap in the literature, we examined one specific road safety educational intervention tailored for the UK military personnel and investigated their attitudes towards the program, optimism bias and willingness to take risks. Measures evaluating their optimism bias, willingness to take risks and attitudes towards the program were asked after the participants attended the road safety interventions. The results revealed that young military personnel, aged 18–25, had higher optimism bias and willingness to take risks compared to older military personnel, and that this effect diminishes with age. The results provide importance evidence related to military personnel's attitudes to risk-taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To investigate medical students' perspectives on the influence of their undergraduate course and the UK prescribing safety assessment (PSA) on the acquisition of practical prescribing skills. Methods: An online questionnaire comprising multiple choice and open‐ended questions was available to UK medical students in years 3, 4 and 5. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were completed. Results: In total, 1023 medical students from 25 UK medical schools responded: 22% (3rd year), 37% (4th year) and 41% (final year). A minority of medical students believed that their medical course prepared them sufficiently for practical prescribing (36.4%, n = 372, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 32–41%), 52.6%, of students thought that practical prescribing should be introduced into the curriculum earlier (n = 538, CI = 48–57%), and 73.7% reported that a more consistent approach to the teaching and learning of practical prescribing might be beneficial (n = 754, CI = 71–77%). An awareness of the national PSA was high (86.5%, n = 885), particularly amongst final year students (98.3%, n = 413, CI = 97–100%); 67.4% of all students (n = 690, CI = 64–71%) and 72.1% (n = 303) of final year students perceived that the PSA will improve or had improved their practical prescribing skills. Conclusions: The majority of medical students perceive that their undergraduate course does not adequately prepare them for practical prescribing. Many believe that there is some merit in introducing practical prescribing teaching earlier in the curriculum and medical schools adopting a more consistent approach. Among medical students, the PSA is thought to have a positive influence on prescribing skills learning. These data might be useful in developing a programme of study dedicated to practical prescribing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both road safety campaigns and epidemiological research into social differences in road traffic injury risk often assume that road traffic injuries occur close to home. While previous work has examined distance from home to site of collision for child pedestrians in local areas, less is known about the geographic distribution of road traffic injuries from other modes. This study explores the distribution of the distance between home residence and collision site (crash distance) by mode of transport, geographic area, and social characteristics in England. Methods: Using 10 years of road casualty data collected by the police, we examined the distribution of crash distance by age, sex, injury severity, area deprivation, urban/rural status, year, day of week, and, in London only, ethnic group. Results: 54% of pedestrians, 39% of cyclists, 17% of powered two-wheeler riders and 16% of car occupants were injured within 1 km of home. 82% of pedestrians, 83% of cyclists, 54% of powered two-wheeler and 53% of car occupants were injured within 5 km of home. We found some social and geographic differences in crash distance: for all transport modes injuries tended to occur closer to home in more deprived or urban areas; younger and older pedestrians and cyclists were also injured closer to home. Crash distance appears to have increased over time for pedestrian, cyclist and car occupant injuries, but has decreased over time for powered two-wheeler injuries. Conclusions: Injuries from all travel modes tend to occur quite close to home, supporting assumptions made in epidemiological and road safety education literature. However, the trend for increasing crash distance and the social differences identified may have methodological implications for future epidemiological studies on social differences in injury risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this article is to review the literature relating to health and safety in UK Higher Education libraries. This will include an overview of the literature on accident theories and also the human element. Various key findings emerge from this analysis. Personal safety is achieved through self-responsibility, following guidelines and having a working knowledge of reporting procedures. A safety culture in the work environment is developed through a proactive approach on the part of management, the provision of information, training, and carrying out safety inspections. These inspections are aimed at preventing the environment from creating a situation where an accident could occur. There can never be a work environment in which no accidents will occur and best practice can only minimize the risk of accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The main objectives of this study were to investigate the causes and circumstances of all fatal work-related accidents in the UK fishing industry from 1996 to 2005, to compare fatal accident rates with those in all other British occupations and industries and in the general British workforce, and to establish long term trends in the fatal accident rate in UK fishing since 1919. Of 160 deaths from work-related accidents in the UK fishing industry from 1996 to 2005, 86 arose from incidents involving fishing vessels and 74 were from personal accidents, with a fatal accident rate of 102 per 100,000 fishermen-years. After fishermen, the next most hazardous occupations were dockers and stevedores (28 per 100,000), refuse and salvage workers (25), agricultural machinery drivers (18), steel erectors, road construction workers (both 15), roofers (13) and scaffolders (12). The fatal accident rate among fishermen was 115 times greater than in the general British workforce, while there has been little reduction in the fatal accident rate in the UK fishing industry in the last 60 years. This study shows that commercial fishing is by far the most hazardous occupation in Britain. Prevention of fatal accidents should focus on increased use of personal flotation devices, reductions in lone fishing and the use of unstable, unseaworthy and badly maintained fishing vessels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although health, safety and risk education for school pupils has received growing attention in recent years, for the most part related education programmes and research aimed at assessing those programmes have focused on health education, with relatively little attention paid to the array of immediate safety risks that are confronting pupils within the school context. This article reports on research carried out with teaching staff in seven schools to establish the approaches that teachers adopt when delivering lessons with inherent risks. This research is primarily concerned to investigate how a safety education strategy in a school context is implemented, operationalised, communicated and presented to pupils, and to establish whether approaches depart from the theories and prescriptions advanced by education advisors and other Government bodies or stakeholders. The perceptions of the teachers are used as a basis for a broader discussion about the adequacy of safety education and the potential to enhance and broaden the delivery of a safety education curriculum implemented through state schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the history of crossing the road in Britain from the traffic acts of the early 19305 to the introduction of the Green Cross Code in the early 197os. It reconstructs this history through the examination of government documents, press releases, newspaper articles, newsreels, public information films, and other road safety materials. Since the interwar period, British governments have become progressively more involved in policing the activity of crossing the road, and there have been two main planks of policy. The first has been to design progressively more sophisticated crossings; the second has been road safety education, including advice about how to use the crossings, disseminated through school crossing patrols, children's clubs, and public information films. Governments have generally relied on appeals to good sense and civic duty rather than legally enforceable rules about crossing the road, and have sought to follow as well as lead public opinion in determining how much to coerce both pedestrians and motorists. The formulation of policy in relation to public attitudes and media responses means that crossing the road during this period has interesting implications for both political and cultural history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on funds worth over £1.6 million for safety education for children granted to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the National Children's Bureau for the setting up of a Child Safety Education Coalition (CSEC) in Great Britain. Baroness Delyth Morgan, minister of children for England, stressed a significant role to be played by the CSEC in creating opportunities for children to experience accessible and practical safety education. The two groups will team up to co-ordinate the distribution of safety education.

Reports on the launching of initiatives in Great Britain to reduce accidents in children. Role of the Collaboration for Accident Prevention and Injury Control; Examples of some initiatives which were launched; Components of a home accident prevention proposal.

Presents a humorous recollection of the author's experience of attending a session on health and safety in the workplace. Threat of litigation for negligence which companies in the United Kingdom face; What the author has learned about workplace safety.