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Fatal and Severe Injuries (FSI) to vulnerable road users is a major road safety problem internationally. Recent resolutions by the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety called for a blanket 30 km/h speed limit in urban areas to address this problem. A project undertaken in Melbourne, Australia, set out to evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of a lower speed limit in a local residential area in the City of Yarra. The intervention comprised replacing 40 km/h speed limit signs in the treated area with 30 km/h signs with an adjacent untreated control area. A before and after study was employed with speed, resident surveys, and estimated safety benefits as measures of its success. Modest reductions in mean speed were observed in the after-phase of the study while benefits were impressive for vehicles travelling at higher speed levels where the risk of severe injury or death is greater. These findings represent an estimated 4% reduction in the risk of severe injury for pedestrians in the event of a collision. Questionnaire responses showed an increased degree of support for the 30 km/h speed limit in local streets in the trial area. The implication of these findings for road safety is discussed, along with the challenges and potential hurdles. Lower speed limits in local streets and municipalities is one important measure to help address vulnerable road users in residential local streets.

Minibuses are widely used for public transport, particularly in developing countries, yet their safety levels are often poor. This study identified a simple set of active and passive safety measures and 566 minibuses in the United Arab Emirates were inspected. Most vehicles were without seat belts or head restraints and had inadequate seat attachment. Low rates of active and passive safety features were recorded. The safety rating system assigned weightings to each of the variables in the survey, based on an assessment of their approximate relative risk. Applied to the benchmarking sample, safety rating scores (out of 50) ranged from below 10 points for the least safe vehicles to around 40 points for the best. Many vehicles inspected scored below 20 points. The safety rating score provided a practical assessment of the safety of the UAE minibus vehicle fleet and could be adapted to other vehicle types. The study outcomes are helping to both justify a new minibus safety standard in the UAE aiming to significantly reduce death and serious injury among the many passengers using this service, as well as to begin the process of removing the least safe vehicles from the fleet.

The overall objective of the current study was to investigate the behaviours and knowledge of parents/carers in relation to safe child occupant travel in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A community survey was completed by 786 participants who were responsible for the safety of 1614 children (aged 10 years and younger). The survey included questions related to the type, frequency and appropriateness of restraint use for their eldest child. Overall, 24 percent of participants reported that they ‘never/almost never’ restrained their eldest child while travelling in a motor vehicle, with this proportion increasing with child age. For example, though 89 percent of participants reported that they restrained their infants (

Purpose This paper aims to examine four key management processes, namely, communication, coordination, decision-making and knowledge-sharing, to determine how these impact on transportation infrastructure project success. The context for this study is the construction of a major highway in the United Arab Emirates. Design/methodology/approach Multiple sources of data are used in this case study that include the following: examination of various documents relating to the project in question; interviews with ten key stakeholders involved with the construction of the project; observations made during the site visit and interviews conducted with four site engineers; a focus group conducted with six key stakeholders involved in the project; and finally interviews conducted with the Minister of Public Works and the Director-General of the Ministry of Public Works. Analysis was conducted using NVivo. Findings Identification and involvement of key stakeholders, particularly in the early phases of a construction project, is found to be highly critical. Managers must develop detailed understanding of stakeholders’ influence in terms of their legitimacy, power and urgency in achieving effectiveness of the management processes. Originality/value The study highlights how different stakeholders influence communication, coordination, decision-making and knowledge-sharing at different stages of the construction project. Hence, understanding stakeholder’s level of legitimacy, power and urgency across the different stages of a project is highly critical.

Purpose Recent studies have called for the translation of theoretical research in safety culture into intervention efforts that can guide organisations in improving their workplace safety culture. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of workplace interventions in improving safety culture. The current study further aims to identify intervention types and target levels, and evaluate their influence on the success of the intervention. Methods Six online databases were searched for workplace intervention studies that evaluated pre- and post- measurements of safety culture. Data were then extracted from the identified studies, and a methodological quality assessment was undertaken to determine the strength of evidence. Results 23 peer-reviewed studies were included in this review. Overall, the majority of the studies had a positive impact on safety culture. The most successful types of interventions were those related to the importance of safety, leadership style and behavioural monitoring. No significant differences in safety culture outcomes were observed between interventions targeted at the individual, work-group or organisational levels. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution due to the overall weak methodological quality of the included studies. Conclusions The results of this review are inconclusive due to the susceptible designs employed by a majority of the studies. Further high-quality experimental research is needed to determine the effectiveness of workplace interventions in improving safety culture.

This study evaluated the behavioural validity of the Monash University Accident Research Centre automation driving simulator for research into the human factors issues associated with automated driving. The study involved both on-road and simulated driving. Twenty participants gave ratings of their willingness to resume control of an automated vehicle and perception of safety for a variety of situations along the drives. Each situation was individually categorised and ratings were processed. Statistical analysis of the ratings confirmed the behavioural validity of the simulator, in terms of the similarity of the on-road and simulator data.

Advanced driver assist systems are being promoted with the expectation that enhanced driver support will mitigate road trauma. While these technologies are optimised for certain road and traffic conditions, not all roads across Australasia are equipped with ADAS-supportive infrastructure. This study developed a desk-top methodology for using road classes (disaggregated by remoteness levels) to estimate the presence of quality roads, road delineation and speed signage in Victoria, Australia. Aerial imagery and mapping data were used to assess a number of random locations based on a developed protocol. The methodology demonstrated that in Victoria, major and arterial roads across all remoteness levels had high-quality sealed surfaces but 42% of all remote roads were unsealed. Delineation (crucial for lane support systems) were absent across 73% of sub-arterial roads independent of remoteness, and absent across 96% of sub-arterial roads in regional and remote areas. Speed sign availability across remote and regional areas was sparse, with only 65% of all roads assessed having signage. Results are reflective of Victoria’s road funding model and consistent with on-road audits conducted by other researchers. This methodology enables the proportion ADAS-ready roads to be estimated so the benefits of ADAS technologies can be quantified and investments into ADAS-supportive infrastructure be readily allocated.

Safe vehicle speeds were identified as a key element in a safe system approach to road safety. The City of Yarra in Melbourne, Australia has a 40 km/h default speed limit across their municipality, but wished to reduce the speed limit in local residential streets to 30 km/h. The Monash University Accident Research Center provided Council with a design for a demonstration trial and agreed to evaluate its safety benefits over 12 months. The trial was expected to show significant reductions in speed and increased community support. A before and after design was employed with a control (untreated) area to evaluate the safety outcomes of the trial. Speed limits were reduced to 30 km/h in the trial area for 12 months but kept at kept at the current 40 km/h (25 mph) limit in the control region. Vehicle speeds were measured at around 100 selected sites in the trial and control areas, and resident surveys were undertaken in both regions before and after the trial. The findings showed a small but modest reduction of 1.1% in average speed in the trial region but a surprising 2.7% in the control region. On further examination, significant reductions were observed in the percent of vehicles exceeding 40 km/h (25 mph) and 50 km/h (31 mph) in both the treated and control regions, but not at 30 km/h (19 mph). A regression analysis further showed a significant treatment effect of 11% at 40 km/h and 25% at 50 km/h when adjusting for differences between treated and controls. Among other findings, the survey results found increased support for the lower speed limit of 17% with little adverse consequences. The findings give support for the likely safety benefits of the 30 km/h trial with increased support from the residents. Speed reductions in the control region suggested a carry-over of the effects of the trial but also added support by local residents for reduced speed limits in the region. Potential injury savings were estimated at a 4% reduction in the risk of a pedestrian injury from the observed treatment effect in the trial region.

Objective: This study set out to provide pretrial data for use in evaluating the benefits of lower speed limits in a local residential area in Melbourne.Methods: An online survey was conducted to a...

Background Good vision is essential for safe driving and studies have associated visual impairment with an increased crash risk. Currently, there is little information about the medical review of drivers with visual field loss. This study examines the prevalence of visual field loss among drivers referred for medical review in one Australian jurisdiction and investigates factors associated with licence outcome in this group. Methods A random sample of 10,000 (31.25 per cent) medical review cases was extracted for analysis from the Victorian licensing authority. Files were screened for the presence of six visual field‐related medical conditions. Data were captured on a range of variables, including referral source, age, gender, health status, crash history and licence outcome. Prevalence analyses were univariate and descriptive. Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with licence outcomes in the visual field loss group. Results Approximately 1.9 per cent of the 10,000 medical review cases screened had a visual field loss condition identified (n = 194). Among the visual field loss group, 57.2 per cent were permitted to continue driving (conditional/unconditional licence). Primary referral sources were the police, self‐referrals and general medical practitioners. Key factors associated with licence test outcomes were visual field condition, age group, crash involvement and referral to the Driver Licensing Authority's Medical Advisors. Those who were younger had a crash involvement triggering referral and those who were referred to the Medical Advisors were more likely to have a positive licensing outcome. Conclusion The evidence base for making licensing decisions is complicated by the variable causes, patterns, progressions and measuring technologies for visual field loss. This study highlighted that the involvement of an expert medical advisory service in Victoria resulted in an increased likelihood that drivers with visual field loss will be allowed to continue driving. Further research is warranted to explore issues relating to severity of field loss and the capacity for compensation.

Achieving remote and rural road safety is a global challenge, exacerbated in Australia and New Zealand by expansive geographical variations and inconsistent population density. Consequently, there exists a rural-urban differential in road crash involvement in Australasia. New vehicle technologies are expected to minimise road trauma globally by performing optimally on high quality roads with predictable infrastructure. Anecdotally, however, Australasia’s regional and remote areas do not fit this profile. The aim of this study was to determine if new vehicle technologies are likely to reduce road trauma, particularly in regional and remote Australia and New Zealand. An extensive review was performed using publicly available data. Road trauma in regional and remote Australasia was found to be double that of urban regions, despite the population being approximately one third of that in urban areas. Fatalities in 100 km/h + speed zones were overrepresented, suggestive of poor speed limit settings. Despite new vehicle ownership in regional and remote Australasia being comparable to major cities, road infrastructure supportive of new vehicle technologies appear lacking, with only 1.3–42% of all Australian roads, and 67% of all New Zealand roads being fully sealed. With road quality in regional and remote areas being poorly mapped, the benefits of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) technologies cannot be realised despite the fact new vehicles with these technologies are penetrating the fleet. Investments should be made into sealing and separating roads but more importantly, for mapping the road network to create a unified tracking system which quantifies readiness at a national level.

This study reports good consistency in international comparisons of the number and severity of backover crashes. More than half occurred to pedestrians aged 60 years and older. Children less than 9 years comprised 5% of these crashes with a similar percent aged 10 to 19 years. A significant 41% reduction in real-world backover crashes was found for Australian vehicles with reversing cameras. A range of driver and pedestrian maneuvers was found and 11 crash scenarios were identified in backover collisions. Mandating the fitting of reversing cameras to all vehicles and enhancements would likely enhance the safety of pedestrians in reversing maneuvers.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of red-light cameras in Dammam, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Two methods were used to assess changes in crash risk at the intersections at which the red-light camera programme had been operating. Geospatial analysis was used to visualize trends in road crash density over the geographical region of Dammam and a pre--post-camera crash analysis was undertaken. The distribution of injury crashes was greater than that of crashes which included property damage, the latter of which was concentrated around central Dammam. The five red-light cameras installed in 2012 were located outside areas of high-crash and injury density, and the total number of crashes reported in the three-month periods after installation was double that before the cameras were installed. This increase in the number of crashes also occurred at the five comparison sites (without red-light cameras), indicating a null effect. The findings from this study are contrary to previous evaluations of speed management programmes associated with red-light cameras. The study highlights the challenges in obtaining data for such research and illustrates that a reliance on overt, fixed camera's to manage speed is unlikely to deliver significant reductions in road trauma.

This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of low speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) technology in current model passenger vehicles, based on real-world crash experience. The validating vehicle safety through meta-analysis (VVSMA) group comprising a collaboration of government, industry consumer organisations and researchers, pooled data from a number of countries using a standard analysis format and the established MUND approach. Induced exposure methods were adopted to control for any extraneous effects. The findings showed a 38 percent overall reduction in rear-end crashes for vehicles fitted with AEB compared to a comparison sample of similar vehicles. There was no statistical evidence of any difference in effect between urban (≤60 km/h) and rural (>60 km/h) speed zones. Areas requiring further research were identified and widespread fitment through the vehicle fleet is recommended.

The UK public transport system is generally considered to be safe. However, annually around 6,000 people are reported to be injured whilst using buses with more than 400 persons killed or seriously injured. Approximately 50% of those injured or killed are aged over 65 years. Free travel on buses has allowed senior citizens the freedom to travel for pleasure and social inclusion, but injuries or near-falls that may occur during the journey can impact on future decisions to travel leading to anxiety/fear of sustaining further injury, loss of personal mobility and ultimately social isolation. A study was undertaken to examine the general safety of older bus users. It explored injury type and causation and proposed design interventions for injury prevention with an objective of exploring how public transport use could possibly be made safer. Consultations were also undertaken with stakeholders which revealed the perceived need for better data systems. Industry stakeholders supported the concept of national injury surveillance databases that could enhance bus safety and inform policy and procedures. Older bus passengers enjoyed the freedom that ‘free’ travel brought to their everyday lives and this social impact dominated discussions with them. However, many had witnessed near-falls and ‘stumbling’ and some had experienced this type of event. However interestingly, many did not report these events to the drivers and accepted that it was an everyday occurrence. None of the interviewees normally asked drivers to wait for them to sit down after they had boarded the bus before the bus moved - but also complained that the drivers were not obliging in this regard. Further to this, observation studies revealed that many older passengers were standing up to alight for a considerable length of time prior to the bus stopping at their individual stops thereby significantly increasing their chances of falling.

This paper presents the key findings from an in-depth case study analysis of a mega transportation infrastructure project with respect to project management practices and stakeholder influence. The project examined is a major highway constructed in the United Arab Emirates. Data was collected using multiple methods including document examination, face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders, site visits and a focus group discussion. The findings highlight the need for improved coordination, communication, decision-making and knowledge-sharing between all the stakeholders.

Backover injuries to pedestrians are a significant road safety issue, but their prevalence is underestimated as the majority of such injuries are often outside the scope of official road injury recording systems, which just focus on public roads. Based on experimental evidence, reversing cameras have been found to be effective in reducing the rate of collisions when reversing; the evidence for the effectiveness of reverse parking sensors has been mixed. The wide availability of these technologies in recent model vehicles provides impetus for real-world evaluations using crash data. A logistic model was fitted to data from crashes that occurred on public roads constituting 3172 pedestrian injuries in New Zealand and four Australian States to estimate the odds of backover injury (compared to other sorts of pedestrian injury crashes) for the different technology combinations fitted as standard equipment (both reversing cameras and sensors; just reversing cameras; just sensors; neither cameras nor sensors) controlling for vehicle type, jurisdiction, speed limit area and year of manufacture restricted to the range 2007-2013. Compared to vehicles without any of these technologies, reduced odds of backover injury were estimated for all three of these technology configurations: 0.59 (95% CI 0.39-0.88) for reversing cameras by themselves; 0.70 (95% CI 0.49-1.01) for both reversing cameras and sensors; 0.69 (95% CI 0.47-1.03) for reverse parking sensors by themselves. These findings are important as they are the first to our knowledge to present an assessment of real-world safety effectiveness of these technologies.

Powered two-wheelers (PTWs--mopeds, motorcycles, and scooters) remain the most dangerous form of travel on today's roads. This study used hospital discharge data from eight European countries to examine the frequencies and patterns of injury among PTW users (age≥14 years), the predicted incidence of the loss of functional ability, and the mechanisms of the head injuries observed (all in light of increased helmet use). Of 977,557 injured patients discharged in 2004, 12,994 were identified as having been injured in PTW collisions. Lower extremity injuries accounted for 26% (25.6-26.7, 95% C.I.) of the total injuries, followed by upper extremity injuries (20.7%: 20.3-21.2), traumatic brain injuries (TBI) (18.5%: 18-19), and thoracic injuries (8.2%: 7.8-8.5). Approximately 80% of the lower extremity injury cases were expected to exhibit some functional disability one year following discharge (predicted Functional Capacity Index, pFCI-AIS98100), compared to 47% of the upper extremity injury cases and 24% of the TBI cases. Although it occurred less frequently, patients that were expected to experience some functional limitation from TBI were predicted to fair worse on average (lose more functional ability) than patients expected to have functional limitations from extremity injuries. Cerebral concussion was the most common head injury observed (occurring in 56% of head injury cases), with most concussion cases (78%) exhibiting no other head injury. Among the AIS3+ head injuries that could be mapped to an injury mechanism, 48% of these were associated with a translational-impact mechanism, and 37% were associated with a rotational mechanism. The observation of high rates of expected long-term disability suggests that future efforts aim to mitigate lower and upper extremity injuries among PTW users. Likewise, the high rates of concussion and head injuries associated with a rotational mechanism provide goals for the next phase of PTW user head protection.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the major management issues that impact on mega transportation infrastructure projects in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and identify the factors that cause unsuccessful project completions. The paper further seeks to identify the changes that can be made to improve project success.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative study that involved face‐to‐face interviews with 20 key experienced transportation construction stakeholders who had been involved in a number of different projects in the UAE. This was followed by a focus group discussion involving ten key stakeholders who had been involved in the construction of a mega project – the Dubai Fujairah Highway. Analysis of the interview data was conducted using NVivo.FindingsThe findings highlight the complexity involved in managing mega transportation infrastructure projects in the UAE. Multiple stakeholders (government agencies, sponsors/clients, management firms, consultants and contractors) influence the various stages of projects. The need for effective communication, coordination, knowledge sharing and decision making amongst the stakeholders, especially during the planning and design stages, is highlighted as critical.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is the small numbers interviewed for each stakeholder group. Nevertheless, the sample of interviews provides a good representation of the transport infrastructure construction industry in the UAE.Practical implicationsThree major practical implications relate to: improving communication and coordination amongst government departments and key stakeholders to streamline effective knowledge sharing and decision making, leading to successful project outcomes; improving the skills and competencies of professional staff at all levels and subsequently delegating authority to lower levels; and the adoption of global international standards to improve planning, design and construction activities.Originality/valueThe paper describes the first study of its kind conducted in the UAE that provides valuable insights with respect to transportation infrastructure project management.

Far-side impacts are not part of any regulated NCAP, FMVSS, or similar test regime despite accounting for 43 percent of the seriously injured persons and 30 percent of the harm in U.S. side impact crashes. Furthermore, injuries to the head and thorax account for over half of the serious injuries sustained by occupants in far-side crashes. Despite this, there is no regulated or well-accepted anthropomorphic test device (ATD) or computer model available to investigate far-side impacts. As such, this presents an opportunity to assess a computer model that can be used to measure the effect of varying restraint parameters on occupant biomechanics in far-side impacts.This study sets out to demonstrate the modified TASS human facet model's (MOTHMO) capabilities in modeling whole-body response in far-side impacts.MOTHMO's dynamic response was compared to that of postmortem human subjects (PMHS), WorldSID, and Thor-NT in a series of far-side sled tests. The advantages, disadvantages, and differences of using MOTHMO compared to ATDs were highlighted and described in terms of model design and instrumentation. Potential applications and improvements for MOTHMO were also recommended.The results showed that MOTHMO is capable of replicating the seat belt-to-shoulder complex interaction, pelvis impacts, head displacement, neck and shoulder belt loading from inboard mounted belts, and impacts from multiple directions. Overall, the model performed better than Thor-NT and at least as well as WorldSID when compared to PMHS results. Though WorldSID and Thor-NT ATDs were capable of reproducing many of these impact loads, measuring the seat belt-to-shoulder complex interaction and thoracic deflection at multiple sites and directions was less accurately handled.This study demonstrated that MOTHMO is capable of modeling whole-body response in far-side impacts. Furthermore, MOTHMO can be used as a virtual design tool to explore the effect of varying restraint parameters on occupant kinematics in far-side crash configurations.

Most licensing jurisdictions in Australia currently employ age-based assessment programs as a means to manage older driver safety, yet available evidence suggests that these programs have no safety benefits. This paper describes a community referral-based model license re assessment procedure for identifying and assessing potentially unsafe drivers. While the model was primarily developed for assessing older driver fitness to drive, it could be applicable to other forms of driver impairment associated with increased crash risk. It includes a three-tier process of assessment, involving the use of validated and relevant assessment instruments. A case is argued that this process is a more systematic, transparent and effective process for managing older driver safety and thus more likely to be widely acceptable to the target community and licensing authorities than age-based practices.

This study investigated the factors associated with the premature graduation into seatbelts for Australian children aged 4-11 years. From 699 child restraint use questionnaires, 195 children were identified as meeting the booster seat height-weight criteria (height: 100-145 cm and weight: 14-26 kg). Of these children, 44% were correctly traveling in a booster seat, while 56% had been moved prematurely into a seatbelt. A multivariable logistic regression model showed that there were a number of key predictors associated with the premature graduation to seatbelts. For example, children who were moved prematurely into a seatbelt were more likely to be older, have other children travelling in the vehicle and have younger parents compared to children appropriately restrained in a booster seat. In addition, there was a significant interaction between vehicle type and parent's household income. Based on the findings of this study, a number of recommendations are made for strategies to enhance appropriate restraint use for this age group, as well as for future research.

International statistics show that Australia is one of the top 10 countries in terms of road crashes per 100,000 population. In spite of this, four people are killed and 90 seriously injured every day on Australian roads. In 2011, the Australian Transport and Infrastructure Council released a National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) for Australia, calling for a reduction of at least 30 percent of deaths and serious injuries on our roads by the year 2020. The strategy is based on Safe System principles embracing the principle that in the longer term, no person should be killed or seriously injured on Australian roads. It accepts that people using the road network will inevitably make mistakes and that the road system must be more forgiving of these errors. It relies on better management of crash energy within the system to keep this within human tolerance. This adherence to what is generally known as Vision Zero aligns Australia with international best practice. To help achieve the immediate goal outlined in the strategy, a National Road Safety Action Plan (NRSAP) was recently adopted for the first three years from 2015 to 2017 focusing on four key areas – Safe Roads; Safe Speeds; Safe Vehicles; and Safe People. The action plan is focused on national efforts and activities to achieve long-term and permanent reductions in road trauma in line with the NRSS target. It aims to achieve these improvements through strategic investment in infrastructure and vehicle safety initiatives using best practice and capacity building as shown below: 1.Safe Roads: The plan calls for short- and long-term initiatives for road improvements based on best available evidence on road authorities at all government levels is necessary to ensure that Safe System principles are applied to all new road projects. 2.Safe Vehicles: Comprehensive regulatory and consumer tests are called for to ensure that proven safety design features and technologies are mandated in new Australian vehicles as quickly as possible. 3.Safe Speeds: Speed enforcement has been shown to be an effective management tool against speed-related crashes. The plan calls for a number of initiatives aimed at reducing speed-related risk. 4.Safe People: Various initiatives were outlined to improved driver and rider risk such as supervised learner driving hours, provisional licence periods, passenger night time restrictions, sanctions for speed and alcohol offences, and mobile phone bans. The strategy notes that there is potential to achieve large and lasting road safety benefits for all Australians, providing there is significant commitment by government and non-governments in implementing the actions outlined. If the strategy is to be successful, it will be necessary to maintain this trend in fatal and serious injury improvements, achieving a target of around 860 deaths and associated serious injuries by 2020. It will be quite a challenge to maintain this trend over this decade but clearly important in terms of road trauma improvement in Australia. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Transport and Infrastructure Council, its partners, and Monash University.

The Department of Transport (DoT) in Abu Dhabi has recognised that while minibuses play a key role in transporting people within the United Arab Emirates, levels of fatal and serious injury among minibus occupants in crashes are high. As a first step toward addressing this problem, the DoT commissioned a benchmarking study to gain an understanding of the state of the minibus fleet, focusing on fundamental vehicle safety aspects, as well as fitment rates of safety features such as airbags and stability control systems. Furthermore, the in-service condition of vehicles was also assessed. Data was collected from 566 minibuses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, comprising more than 80 separate data points characterising the presence, nature and condition of each vehicle. An innovative system was developed to combine these variables to yield a weighted safety score that allowed them to be grouped into categories for later input into a benefit cost analysis of a replacement program. A star rating system was used for the categorisation process because it allows for good discrimination between safety levels while remaining easy to comprehend. The results of the benchmarking study showed that despite the fleet being quite uniform by make and model, there was considerable variation among individual vehicles in terms of seat belt fitment rates and rear passenger compartment seat mounting integrity in particular. Many vehicles in current operation are deficient both in terms of primary and secondary safety, compounded by inconsistent fitment of passenger seat belts. This in-depth survey has provided significant additional information unavailable from registration data and provides a valuable insight into the state of minibus safety in the UAE. The data acquired will be used to conduct a benefit cost analysis targeted at determining the optimal means for implementing significant improvements to the minibus fleet.

A study was undertaken to identify injurious events to users of public transport systems in Australia to assist in the UK project on Improving the Safety for Older Public Transport Users. Two analyses were undertaken comprising an analysis of surveillance data (the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset), collected at a number of participating trauma hospitals in the state of Victoria, and an analysis of National Coronial Information System (NCIS) data in Australia. For the VEMD database, details of injuries were recorded on attendance and the patients’ account of the circumstances of the accident and causation factors were noted. Data from the NCIS involved a collection of coronial data on deaths reported to the Australian coroner from 2000 onwards and contains details on the police report of death, autopsy reports, toxicology reports and coronial findings. The VEMD results showed that injury was more common among bus passengers than those on either trams or trains, especially when taking account of their relatively lower usage. The most common injuries from these incidents were to the head and face regions and upper and lower limbs. Chest injuries were especially problematic for older travellers: they sustained more multiple injuries especially those likely to be life-threatening than their younger counterparts. Getting on or off the vehicle accounted for almost two-thirds of all injury-causing events and the most common mechanisms involved a slip, trip or fall while getting on and off the vehicle or while onboard or running to catch public transport. Being hit, struck or crushed by another person or an object was also reported. Injuries to older public transport users appeared to be positively correlated with increasing age. The majority of those injured only required out-patient treatment at the participating hospital but this too was somewhat dependent on the participant’s age. The NCIS results further showed that for fatal outcomes to public transport users, self-harm was a predominant cause and older people seemed less involved than younger ones, albeit young-older groups. Males predominated over females and most mechanisms involved external impacts. Trains were heavily over-involved as a vehicle type and there were high proportions of multiple injuries, especially those judged to be intentional. A range of possible interventions to prevent these events and mitigate injury severity was identified and a number of limitations in this study were noted. Several areas requiring further research were identified for future studies, in particular, the need for more definitive in-depth studies of public transport injurious incidents was especially noteworthy.

This study aimed to determine the extent to which older drivers can be considered responsible for their crashes, to identify key factors in those crashes for which older drivers have been judged responsible, and to assess the extent to which older drivers' extra crash responsibility contributes to the road toll. Insurance claims from the State of Tasmania, Australia, for 1998-2002 were linked with police records for crashes involving drivers aged either 41-55 years or 65 years or older. Insurance and police data sets contained independent judgments of crash responsibility. There was a high level of agreement between the two sets of judgments, with older drivers judged around 1.5 times more likely to be responsible for their crashes than middle-aged drivers and, conversely, older drivers were around 0.6 as likely to be absolved from crash responsibility. It was concluded that older drivers' additional crash responsibility while valuable in explaining "what went wrong," currently makes only a small contribution to the overall road toll.

This paper describes a survey of self-regulatory driving practices of 656 drivers aged 55 years and older. Types and prevalence of self-regulatory behaviours were examined and key characteristics of self-regulators were identified. Overall, the majority of drivers reported being very confident in potentially difficult driving situations and relatively few avoided these situations. The most commonly avoided situations were driving at night (25%), on wet nights (26%) and in busy traffic (22%). There was a strong association between drivers’ avoidance of and confidence in specific driving situations (e.g. night driving) and ratings of relevant functional abilities (e.g. vision for night driving). Logistic regression modelling revealed that those most likely to adopt avoidance behaviour were female, 75 years and older, not the principal driver in the household, had been involved in a crash in the last 2 years, reported vision problems and had lower confidence ratings. Implications for promotion of safe driving practices are discussed.

Older drivers are currently over-represented in severe injury crashes at intersections due in part to increases in frailty and functional disabilities that occur with age. Moreover, this rate is expected to increase as older people drive more and the population ages. Road design plays a major role in road safety and is likely to contribute to the driving difficulties of the elderly because of the general lack of consideration of the needs of older road users. Intersections, in particular, stand out as a major problem for older road users. This paper reviews age-related performance deficits that affect driving and describes a crash ‘black-spot’ site analysis that examined the relationship between intersection design features (believed to influence the safety of older drivers) and the older driver crash experience in Australasia. A number of intersection design problems for older drivers were identified and recommendations for changes in road design features and traffic management practices that have the potential to reduce crash and injury risk for older drivers at intersections are made.

Recent findings have shown the nearside impact dummies BioSID and EuroSID to be less applicable in far-side testing. In this paper, the lumbar spine of a BioSID dummy was replaced with a coil spring to enable a more extensive shearing, bending and elongation of the dummy spine. Using a sled test method developed to replicate a 65-km/h impact full-scale far-side test, the kinematics and injury measures of the modified dummy were compared to a Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) full-scale crash. These results showed that the dummy trajectory and acceleration measures reasonably predicted the PMHS movement although further validation is required. Also, a series of BioSID far-side sled tests was performed with and without the spine modification during various loading conditions. These results showed the spring to remarkably change the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) values, kinematics, and loads. In conclusion, the spring spine ‘when fitted to the BioSID test dummy,’ was found to be suitable to manifest inj...

Older drivers are frequently viewed as overly represented in crashes, particularly when crash involvement per distance travelled is considered. This perception has led to a call for tighter licensing conditions for older drivers, a policy which inevitably results in mobility restrictions for at least some drivers. However there is a growing body of research evidence which shows that as a group, older drivers represent no greater road risk than drivers from other age groups once different levels of driving activity are taken into account. This paper has examined aspects of older drivers' fitness to drive based on survey data and off-road and on-road driving performance from a sample of 905 New Zealand older drivers. The results show that policies which target all older drivers and lead to licensing and mobility restrictions cannot be justified from a safety basis.

The over-representation of older pedestrians in serious injury and fatal crashes compared to younger adults may be due, in part, to age-related diminished ability to select gaps in oncoming traffic for safe road-crossing. Two experiments are described that examine age differences in gap selection decisions in a simulated road-crossing environment. Three groups of participants were tested, younger (30-45 years), young-old (60-69 years) and old-old (>75 years). The results showed that, for all age groups, gap selection was primarily based on vehicle distance and less so on time-of-arrival. Despite the apparent ability to process the distance and speed of oncoming traffic when given enough time to do so, many of the old-old adults appeared to select insufficiently large gaps. These results are discussed in terms of age-related physical, perceptual and cognitive limitations and the ability to compensate for these limitations. Practical implications for road safety countermeasures are also highlighted, particularly the provision of safe road environments and development of behavioural and training packages.

The possibility that driving speeds could be reduced through the use of lane delineation was explored. Using a high-fidelity driving simulator, 28 experienced drivers were measured on seven two-lane rural roads with lane widths of 3.6, 3.0, or 2.5 m, and with either a standard centreline (control), a wide painted hatched road centre marking, or a wide white gravel road centre marking. Driving speeds were reduced on the narrowest lane width road, and further reduced on straight road sections that contained the centre marking with painted hatching. It was concluded that the narrow lane width increased steering workload and reduced speeds through a speed-steering workload trade-off, whilst the hatched road centre marking enhanced peripheral visual speed perception, leading to higher speed estimations and slower speeds. Therefore, narrowing the lane width below 3.0 m by using a painted hatched road centre marking should be an effective way to reduce driving speeds.

This study examines the relationship between age and the injury outcomes for belted drivers in road vehicle crashes in the United Kingdom. The sample of 1,541 drivers was divided into three age groups: 889 drivers were aged 17–39 years (young drivers); 515 were 40–64 years (middle-aged), and 137 aged 65–84 years (older drivers). Both frontal and side impact crashes in which the vehicles sustained sufficient damage to be towed away from the scene are considered. In-depth information obtained from examinations of the crashed vehicles was combined with clinical data obtained from hospitals to throw light on the mechanisms that led to the injuries. Results show that in crashes of approximately equal severity, older drivers were significantly more likely than middle-aged and young drivers to be fatally injured in both frontal (p

According to real-life crash data, one of the most harmful events among all side impacts is when the driver-head hits the far-side door when the car is hit from the far side. There is currently no established test method to simulate a crash where such an event is at risk of occurring. In order to assess real life injuries and develop countermeasures for far side crashes, standardized cost-effective test methods are needed. This paper presents a bending bar sled-test set-up simulating a full-scale 9 o'clock far side crash. In the full scale crash-test a deformable barrier with a speed of 65 km/h struck the passenger side of a passenger car with a BioSID in the driver seat. The intrusion of the vehicle was over when the dummy hit the far side door and therefore there was no requirement to simulate intrusion rate and extent in the sled test. The remaining part of the deformed vehicle was chopped in front of the instrument panel and behind the front seats and was then fastened transversely onto a sle...

Objectives: This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of motorcycle antilock braking systems (ABS) in reducing real-life crashes.Since the European Parliament has voted on legislation making ABS mandatory on all new motorcycles over 125 cc from 2016, the fitment rate in Europe is likely to increase in the coming years. Though previous research has focused on mostly large displacement motorcycles, this study used police reports from Spain (2006–2009), Italy (2009), and Sweden (2003–2012) in order to analyze a wide range of motorcycles, including scooters, and compare countries with different motorcycling habits.Methods: The statistical analysis used odds ratio calculations with an induced exposure approach. Previous research found that head-on crashes were the least ABS-affected crash type and was therefore used as the nonsensitive crash type for ABS in these calculations. The same motorcycle models, with and without ABS, were compared and the calculations were carried out for each country separately. Crashes involving only scooters were further analyzed.Results: The effectiveness of motorcycle ABS in reducing injury crashes ranged from 24% (95% confidence interval [CI], 12–36) in Italy to 29% (95% CI, 20–38) in Spain, and 34% (95% CI, 16–52) in Sweden. The reductions in severe and fatal crashes were even greater, at 34% (95% CI, 24–44) in Spain and 42% (95% CI, 23–61) in Sweden.The overall reductions of crashes involving ABS-equipped scooters (at least 250 cc) were 27% (95% CI, 12–42) in Italy and 22% (95% CI, 2–42) in Spain. ABS on scooters with at least a 250 cc engine reduced severe and fatal crashes by 31% (95% CI, 12–50), based on Spanish data alone.Conclusions: At this stage, there is more than sufficient scientific-based evidence to support the implementation of ABS on all motorcycles, even light ones. Further research should aim at understanding the injury mitigating effects of motorcycle ABS, possibly in combination with combined braking systems.

Objectives: This study set out to examine seat belt and child restraint use in the Dammam Municipality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, based on the premise that an increase in seat belt use would significantly reduce personal injury in traffic crashes. It was expected that local data would help identify intervention strategies necessary to improve seat belt use in the region. Methods: The research involved 2 methodologies. First, 1,389 face-to-face interviews were conducted with male and female adults in regional shopping plazas regarding their own and their children's restraint use in their vehicles and reasons for these attitudes and beliefs. Second, 2 on-road observation studies of adult and child restraint use were conducted by trained observers. Occupants of approximately 5,000 passenger vehicles were observed while stopped at representative signalized traffic intersections. Results: The findings showed front seat belt use rates of between 43 and 47% for drivers and 26 to 30% for front seat passengers; rear seat belt use rates were lower. While there seemed to be some knowledge about the purpose and reasons for restraining both adults and children in suitable restraints, this failed to be confirmed in the on-road observations. Conclusions: Reasons for these rates and findings are discussed fully, and recommendations for improving seat belt use in the Dammam Municipality are included.

The behavioral validation of an advanced driving simulator for its use in evaluating speeding countermeasures was performed for mean speed. Using mature drivers, 24 participants drove an instrumented car and 20 participants drove the simulator in two separate experiments. Participants drove on roads which contained transverse rumble strips at three sites, as well as three equivalent control sites. The three pairs of sites involved deceleration, and were the approaches to stop sign intersections, right curves, and left curves. Numerical correspondence (absolute validity), relative correspondence (or validity), and interactive (or dynamic) relative validity were analyzed, the latter using correlations developed from canonical correlation. Participants reacted to the rumble strips, in relation to their deceleration pattern on the control road, in very similar ways in both the instrumented car and simulator experiments, establishing the relative validities. However, participants generally drove faster in the instrumented car than the simulator, resulting in absolute validity not being established.

The psychological mechanisms responsible for speed reductions caused by transverse lines were investigated. Using a driving simulator, 24 experienced drivers drove toward intersections with transverse lines at both reducing and constant spacing, with lines extending 0.6 m from the lane edges (peripheral transverse lines), and no lines (control), both before and after speed adaptation. All lines reduced travel speeds during the treatment areas only, and only slightly more after speed adaptation. Transverse lines reduced speeds more than peripheral lines only in the initial treatment area, and no speed differences were found between the two transverse line spacing schemes. It was concluded that transverse lines reduce speed through alerting when initially reached, and also through peripheral perception processes throughout the treatment. However, speed perception is not influenced by the decreasing spacing of the lines.

The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the impact of peer-presented education sessions on the falls-related attitude, knowledge and behaviour of older people. The evaluation was undertaken on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, and adopted a non-randomised pre-test post-test design. Baseline, 3 and 12 months follow-up data were collected for 107 individuals who attended the education sessions and 116 controls, matched by age range and sex. The groups were not strictly equivalent at baseline, with the intervention group having a greater knowledge about falls and falls prevention. Analyses which controlled for baseline differences showed that those who attended the education sessions maintained a greater knowledge of factors that can prevent falls at 12 months follow-up. The intervention group also made more changes in and around their home to prevent falls by 3 and 12 months follow-up. Younger participants who reported a previous history of falls and having taken action to prevent falls were most likely to take additional action. The results can help target this type of education program and suggest that their major benefit may lie in providing those who voluntarily attend with the impetus to take the most effective preventative action.

Airbags are expected to reduce vehicle occupant injuries, primarily by preventing head and chest contacts with the steering wheel and instrument panel. To date, however, there has been little evidence of airbag effectiveness in terms of field accident investigations. This paper presents some preliminary results from an ongoing case-control study of crashed vehicles equipped with Australian airbag technology. Vehicles were inspected and occupants interviewed according to the National Accident Sampling System (NASS). Data were available for 140 belted drivers involved in frontal crashes, including 71 airbag and 69 control cases. Analyses revealed significant reductions in the cost of injury and a strong indication of a reduction in overall injury severity among the airbag cases. Indications of airbag benefits were also found in terms of a reduction in the probability of sustaining a moderate and severe injury. Some evidence was found for an increase in minor injuries among the airbag cases. As expected, airbag technology seems to be reducing head, face and chest injuries, particularly those of at least a moderate severity. These results are compared with recent overseas findings.

Much of the applied vehicle side impact occupant protection research to date has concentrated on occupants seated beside the struck side of vehicles. These occupants are defined as ‘near-side occupants’. Regulatory side impact test standards focus exclusively on this scenario. Real world crash evidence however has shown that occupants seated on the side away from the struck side, defined as ‘far-side occupants’, are still subject to a risk of injury. Relatively little research literature is available that addresses the protection of far-side occupants. Existing three-pint seat belt restraint systems were primarily designed for frontal impacts. Consequently, there is an inability for these systems to perform as effectively under lateral loading, compared to longitudinal loading. This is particularly the case for far-side occupant restraints, where the occupant's upper tom has often been observed to slip out from under the sash part of the seat belt system. This paper examines side impact epidemiol...

Large-scale accident studies are an indispensable tool to idente the focal points of crash occurrence and the benefits of active and passive safety systems. This report describes the requirements on data quality and presents results of retrospective large-scale studies concerning collision types in real-world accidents, effect of safety systems and possibility and limits of car safety assessment. Large-scale studies of the German Motor Insurers (GDV), covering close to 20,000 accidents, indicate that 6 crash configurations cover the majority of fatal car crashes. A weighting procedure of car-to-car and single car crashes, integrated assessment of collision types is described. The effectiveness of safety systems is a typical research field of large-scale accident studies. An analysis of 249 airbag cases showed that driver airbags reduce Serious/fatal injuries by more than 40% compared with seat belt only cases. For passenger airbags, up to now, no clear evidence of injury reduction has been found in general, but their effect in very serious front crashes is thought to be unquestionable. Accident studies with children in cars showed a seven times lower risk for fatal and serious injuries to restrained than to unrestrained children. But Child Restraint Systems (CRS) could be still more efficient. In a study carried out on CRS, it was noticed that serious misuse was found in 33% of cases, misuse including minor faults amounted to 63%. A further study, based on 150 persons, showed that a standardised rigid connection between CRS and vehicle, the ISOFIX-system, would reduce misuse by at least a factor ten. Large-scale studies are a pre-requisite for safety rating systems, which promote the consumer's interest in car safety. In a GDV-research project, the experience with existing safety rating systems has been analysed. Calculations based on uniform accident material, selected from the GDV database, showed that ranking differences mainly relate to the procedure of the rating systems and less to different traffic circumstances in different countries. Language: en

Representative crash investigation data has been collected for a number of years in Australia and used for various research studies, including estimating the benefits of new safety initiatives. This paper examines the use and role of real-world crash data for setting safety priorities, in evaluating the effectiveness of regulations and safety systems and identifying best practice for improving occupant protection, based on recent experience in Australia.

A detailed examination was undertaken of hospitalized car occupants who sustained a lower limb injury in a frontal crash. The assessment included an analysis of the type, severity and causes of these injuries and mechanisms involved in lower limb fractures. The findings showed that fractures and dislocations occurred in 88% of lower limb injury cases, that more than half were from crashes < 48 km hour-1 and that the number of fractures was directly proportional with delta V. Ankle dislocations and foot fractures from the floor and toe pand were the most common injury-source combination overall. The most frequent mechanisms of lower limb fracture were compression, perpendicular loading of the knee and crushing or twisting of the foot. The study points to the need for further regulation to reduce lower limb fractures in frontal crashes and highlights a number of possible countermeasures.

The objective of the study was to determine differences between the United States-based NASS and CIREN and Australia-based ANCIS databases in occupant-, crash-, and vehicle-related parameters for AIS 4+ head injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine roles of the change in velocity (DV), crash type (frontal, far-side, nearside, rear impact), seatbelt use, and occupant position, gender, age, stature, and body mass in cranial traumas. Belted and unbelted non-ejected occupant (age >16 years) data from 1997–2006 were used for the NASS and CIREN datasets, and 2000–2010 for ANCIS. Vehicle model year, and occupant position and demographics including body mass index (BMI) data were obtained. Injuries were coded using AIS 1990–1998 update. Similarities were apparent across all databases: mean demographics were close to the mid-size anthropometry, mean BMI was in the normal to overweight range, and representations of extreme variations were uncommon. Side impacts contributed to over one-half of the ensemble, implying susceptibility to head trauma in this mode. Odds of sustaining head injury increased by 4% per unit increase in DV (OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.03–1.04, p

Background: the burden of falls and fall-related injuries among older adults is well established. Contention surrounds the effectiveness, and hence value, of multi-component fall prevention interventions delivered in the community. Objective: using consensus-based analytic guidelines rather than time-to-first fall as the primary endpoint, the objective was to examine the effectiveness of the Whitehorse NoFalls trial on all falls, falls resulting in injury and falls requiring medical care to be sought. Design, setting and participants: the study was a community-based randomised controlled trial, with 1,090 participants assigned to one of eight groups, these being a combination of one or more of exercise, vision and or home hazard reduction or alternatively assignment to the control group. Methods: using negative binomial regression, the incidence of all falls, falls resulting in injury and those requiring medical care in the intervention groups were examined. Falls were reported using a monthly return calendar. Results: exercise alone and in combination with vision and/or home hazard reduction was associated with fewer falls. For falls resulting in injury and the subset requiring medical care, the vision plus exercise intervention was associated with fewer falls. Conclusions: the findings confirm the effectiveness of exercise in preventing falls among community-dwelling older adults and supports contention that multi-component interventions do not prevent more falls than a single intervention. The results highlight the effectiveness of vision plus exercise in preventing more serious falls, a finding which warrants further consideration.