Responsibility allocation for child injury: victim age and positive vs. negative framing of manufacturer's safety policy

Two experiments examined allocation of responsibility in the context of a fictitious, but realistic, product-use scenario in which a young girl suffers serious brain injury after consuming a product with a non-obvious hazard (marshmallows). The research investigated whether the responsibility allocated to the various parties would depend on the age of the child and whether the manufacturer took, or failed to take, precautions. Scenarios given to participants stated the age of the girl as 1½ years, 4 years, 8 years, or 16 years and had positive, negative, or no supplemental information about the manufacturer and its safety practices. Both experiments showed that the parents were considered most responsible for a young child's injury, but the allocation decreased with the older child. When negative information about the manufacturer's safety practices was given, allocations of responsibility for the girl's injury to the manufacturer increased significantly. In Experiment 2, the presence of warnings in the positive supplemental information condition reduced the manufacturer's responsibility for the oldest (16-year old) child. Negative impressions due to poor safety practices by manufacturers can lead to increased levels of responsibility allocated for injury. Primary caretakers are responsible for the safety of young children, but as they get older, children are viewed as being more responsible for their own safety. These results have implications for product-development decisions including labelling. They also point out a role for human factors professionals before and during product-related forensic litigation.     

The Risk Line: a special telephone line to provide means of reporting potential dangers and to increase public participation

Injuries constitute a significant public health problem. There is a risk of injury in any environment in which persons are present. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and experiences from the Risk Line. The Risk Line is a special telephone number to provide means of reporting potential risks for injuries and dangerous products and to increase public participation in injury reporting. Various strategies have been used to make the Risk Line well known in the population. Weekly reports on the risk of playground, traffic, recreational, and residential injuries and dangerous products have been distributed to those who are responsible for eliminating these hazards. The major risk environments reported were traffic, recreational, residential environments, and playgrounds. Seventy-seven percent of the reported hazards had been eliminated. A majority of the public (72%) who had phoned the Risk Line stated that they had become more observant and aware of risks for injuries. In conjunction with injury statistics and safety inspections, information from the Risk Line can contribute to give an improved overall picture of where priorities are needed in safety promotion and injury prevention work.     

Multimodal injury risk analysis of road users at signalized and non-signalized intersections

This paper proposes a multimodal approach to study safety at intersections by simultaneously analysing the safety and flow outcomes for both motorized and non-motorized traffic. This study uses an extensive inventory of signalized and non-signalized intersections on the island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, containing disaggregate motor-vehicle, cyclist and pedestrian flows, injury data, geometric design, traffic control and built environment characteristics in the vicinity of each intersection. Bayesian multivariate Poisson models are used to analyze the injury and traffic flow outcomes and to develop safety performance functions for each mode at both facilities. After model calibration, contributing injury frequency factors are identified. Injury frequency and injury risk measures are then generated to carry out a comparative study to identify which mode is at greatest risk at intersections in Montreal. Among other results, this study identified the significant effect that motor-vehicle traffic imposes on cyclist and pedestrian injury occurrence. Motor-vehicle traffic is the main risk determinant for all injury and intersection types. This highlights the need for safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians who are, on average, at 14 and12 times greater risk than motorists, respectively, at signalized intersections. Aside from exposure measures, this work also identifies some geometric design and built environment characteristics affecting injury occurrence for cyclists, pedestrians and motor-vehicle occupants.     

试论北京市禁止燃放烟花爆竹政令解除的可能性

概述了近年来特别是2004年元旦、春节期间北京市禁止燃放烟花爆竹政令实施现状,在此基础上分析了当前禁放面临严峻形势的深层原因。指出,解除政令、变"禁"为"限",是烟花爆竹安全管理发展的历史必然,也是缓解当前"禁"、"限"两难的根本途径。     

Identifying crash contributory factors at urban roundabouts and using association rules to explore their relationships to different crash types

The use of roundabouts improves intersection safety by eliminating or altering conflict types, reducing crash severity, and causing drivers to reduce speeds. However, roundabout performances can degrade if precautions are not taken during either the design or the operation phase. Therefore, additional information on the safety of the roundabouts is extremely helpful for planners and designers in identifying existing deficiencies and in refining the design criteria currently being used. The aim of the paper was to investigate the crash contributory factors in 15 urban roundabouts located in Italy and to study the interdependences between these factors.The crash data refer to the period 2003–2008. The identification of the crash contributory factors was based on site inspections and rigorous analyses performed by a team of specialists with a relevant road safety engineering background. Each roundabout was inspected once every year from 2004 to 2009, both in daytime and in nighttime. Overall, 62 different contributory factors and 2156 total contributory factors were identified. In 51 crashes, a single contributory factor was found, whereas in the other 223 crashes, a combination of contributory factors was identified. Given the large amount of data, the interdependences between the contributory factors and between the contributory factors and the different crash types were explored by an association discovery. Association discovery is the identification of sets of items (i.e., crash contributory factors and crash types in our study) that occur together in a given event (i.e., a crash in our study). The rules were filtered by support, confidence, and lift. As a result, 112 association rules were discovered.Overall, numerous contributory factors related to the road and environment deficiencies but not related to the road user or to the vehicle were identified. The most important factors related to geometric design were the radius of deflection and the deviation angle. In existing roundabouts, the improvement of these factors might be quite expensive, but the crucial role of a moderate radius of deflection and a large deviation angle in the design of new roundabouts was stressed. Many of the contributory factors were related to markings and signs, and these factors could be easily removed with low-cost safety measures. Furthermore, because of the association between the markings, signs, and geometric design contributory factors, the study results suggest that the improvement in markings and signs might also have a significant effect in the sites where geometric design deficiencies were identified as contributory factors.     

Diseases, consumption of medicines and responsibility for a road crash: a case-control study

The role of medical conditions in crashes is a topic of public debate. Some studies suggest that there has been a reduction in road traffic crashes subsequent to the medical restrictions introduced on drivers with medical deficiencies. As in today's society the car is an important factor for independence and socialization, it seems important to consider whether diseases or consumption of drugs increase the risk of causing a road crash in comparison to well-known major crash risk factors. A case-control study was conducted (733 injured drivers). The cases were subjects who were partly or totally responsible for their crash. The 304 controls were the non-responsible drivers. Diseases and medicine consumption were analyzed using logistic regression models. Cases were characterized by a higher percentage of young men. They were more frequently affected by fatigue, as were subjects who had consumed alcohol. A higher risk in subjects suffering from hypertension is observed (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR]=3.82; 95%CI=[1.42-10.24]). An association between antidepressant consumption and responsibility appeared (adjOR=3.61; 95%CI=[1.30-10.03]). CONCLUSION: Medical factors associated with responsibility were arterial hypertension and antidepressant consumption. Other medical conditions do not seem to play a preponderant role comparing to individual behaviours.     

Risk factors for injury accidents among moped and motorcycle riders

Objective

To study and quantify the effect of factors related to the riders of powered two-wheelers on the risk of injury accident involvement.

Methodology

Based on national data held by the police from 1996 to 2005, we conducted a case–control study with responsibility for the accident as the event of interest. We estimated the odds ratios for accident responsibility. Making the hypothesis that the non-responsible riders in the study are representative of all the riders on the road, we thus identified risk factors for being responsible for injury accidents. The studied factors are age, gender, helmet wearing, alcohol consumption, validity of the subject's driving licence and for how long it has been held, the trip purpose and the presence of a passenger on the vehicle. Moped and motorcycle riders are analyzed separately, adjusting for the main characteristics of the accident.

Results

For both moped and motorcycle riders, being male, not wearing a helmet, exceeding the legal limit for alcohol and travelling for leisure purposes increased the risk of accident involvement. The youngest and oldest users had a greater risk of accident involvement. The largest risk factor was alcohol, and we identified a dose–effect relationship between alcohol consumption and accident risk, with an estimated odds ratio of over 10 for motorcycle and moped riders with a BAC of 2 g/l or over. Among motorcycle users, riders without a licence had twice the risk of being involved in an accident than those holding a valid licence. However, the number of years the rider had held a licence reduced the risk of accident involvement. One difference between moped and motorcycle riders involved the presence of a passenger on the vehicle: while carrying a passenger increased the risk of being responsible for the accident among moped riders, it protected against this risk among motorcycle riders.

Conclusion

This analysis of responsibility has identified the major factors contributing to excess risk of injury accidents, some of which could be targeted by prevention programmes.     

Multiple-vehicle traffic accidents in Hong Kong

‘Multiple-vehicle traffic accident’ refers to a crash between two or more moving objects. Unlike single-vehicle accidents, not all drivers involving in a multiple-vehicle accident are responsible for the occurrence of the event. Accordingly, variables such as road type, speed limit and number of vehicles involved in the accident are expected to play a much more important role in association with injury severity in multiple-vehicle accidents. To study the factors influencing injury severity of multiple-vehicle traffic accidents, a population-based study was conducted. The traffic accident data was obtained from the Traffic Accident Data System (TRADS), which was developed by the Transport Department, Police Force and Information Technology Services Department, Hong Kong. Multiple-vehicle traffic accidents (N = 10,630) occurring during the 2-year period 1999/2000 were considered. Potential risk factors such as district, human, vehicle, safety, environmental and site factors were examined. Categorizing injury severity into “fatal/serious” and “slight”, a stepwise logistic regression model was applied to the population data set. The district board, time of the accident, driver's gender, vehicle type, road type, speed limit and the number of vehicles involved are significant factors influencing the injury severity. Identification of risk factors for severe traffic accidents provides valuable information to help with new and improved road safety control measures.     

Risk factors affecting the severity of single vehicle traffic accidents in Hong Kong

A population-based case-control study was conducted to examine factors affecting the severity of single vehicle traffic accidents in Hong Kong. In particular, single vehicle accident data of three major vehicle types, namely private vehicles, goods vehicles and motorcycles, which contributed to over 80% of all single vehicle accidents during the 2-year-period 1999-2000, were considered. Data were obtained from the newly implemented traffic accident data system (TRADS), which was developed jointly by the Transport Department, Police Force and Information Technology Services Department, Hong Kong. The effect of district, human, vehicle, safety, environmental and site factors on injury severity of an accident was examined. Unique risk factors associated with each of the vehicle types were identified by means of stepwise logistic regression models. For private vehicles, district board, gender of driver, age of vehicle, time of the accident and street light conditions are significant factors determining injury severity. For goods vehicles, seat-belt usage and weekday occurrence are the only two significant factors associated with injury severity. For motorcycles, age of vehicle, weekday and time of the accident were determined to be important factors affecting the injury severity. Identification of potential risk factors pertinent to the particular vehicle type has important implications to relevant official organisations in modifying safety measures in order to reduce the occurrence of severe traffic accidents, which would help to promote a safe road environment.     

铁路干线附近采矿爆破安全性论证研究

应用系统安全评价方法,辨识危险有害因素,提出风险控制对策并建立安全性论证的过程控制体系,探索工程爆破评估论证工作的系统化、科学化、规范化和标准化。通过对铁路干线周边矿山采矿爆破的论证工作,系统研究过程控制体系,经专家评审,编制科学、公正、合法、行之有效的安全性论证报告,进一步检验其可操作性,为推动评估论证标准化总结经验。     

The epidemiology and prevention of child pedestrian injury

Of pedestrian injuries that occur every year, approximately 50,000, including 1300 fatalities, are experienced by children between the ages of 1 and 14 years. Despite the importance of the problem, the pedestrian safety issue is often neglected in reports on vehicular injuries. Children between the ages of five and nine years, boys, and children in lower socioeconomic class are at higher risk of pedestrian injury than other children. Childhood pedestrian injuries take place predominantly in residential locations close to home and frequently occur while the child is at play. The risk of pedestrian injury to children is higher than that of other age groups when adjusted for traffic exposure, and a variety of developmental limitations may account for this fact. In spite of these limitations, children undertake collision avoidance maneuvers far more often than drivers do. Accident analyses have identified 15 different accident types, each reflecting a unique combination of human and environmental factors. Among children, the most frequently observed accident type is the midblock dart-out. Programs to modify pedestrian behavior, driver behavior, and vehicle design have met with modest success. In the United States, the cultural and political environments have not been favorable to the injury prevention effort. Urban designers and traffic engineers in Europe have undertaken a variety of modifications of the physical environment, and some of these have been successful in preventing pedestrian injuries to children.     

福建省老旧电梯缺陷与故障统计分析

文中介绍了福建省使用15年以上在用老旧电梯的基本情况。通过对老旧电梯安全性能评估,分析研究其主要缺陷及形成原因,对缺陷和出现的故障进行统计分析研究,以此抓住电梯定期检验与安全评估的着重点,提高检测诊断能力和效率,更好地把握电梯检验质量,有效减少电梯故障率。同时探讨了老旧电梯运行故障和可靠性问题,提出老旧电梯安全监管的对策与措施。     

Societal influences on childhood accidents

Efforts aimed at the prevention of accidents to children have, at various times, focused on the behavior of the child, the behavior of the child's parents, and the physical environment of the child. Whatever their focus, many of these efforts have been unsuccessful because they have failed to take into account social factors which influence not only the behavior of both children and parents but also the nature and number of hazards in the child's environment, both at home and elsewhere. This paper reviews briefly each of the several foci of accident countermeasures in order to identify social factors that have been overlooked and to indicate why these factors must be recognized and dealt with if future countermeasures are to be effective.     

Protective actions in the late phase--intervention criteria and decision-making

Major countermeasures in the late phase of a nuclear or radiological accident where long-lived radionuclides have been dispersed in the environment are relocation/resettlement, foodstuff restrictions, agricultural countermeasures and clean-up of contaminated areas. There has essentially been a broad acceptance internationally of the principles for their introduction, but it has not been possible to reach an agreement for the purpose of defining a net benefit based upon the exact weighting to be attached to each of the attributes influencing the decision on intervention, e.g. socio-psychological attributes. Optimisation of protection, i.e. maximising the net benefit, is not a question of developing radiation protection philosophy to fully include socio-psychological factors but rather to include these factors--in parallel with the radiological protection factors--in cooperation between radiation protection experts and e.g. experts in social and psychological sciences under the responsibility of the decision-maker, who will take the final decision on the introduction of long-term countermeasures.     

Investigating the gender differences on bicycle-vehicle conflicts at urban intersections using an ordered logit methodology

In the literature, a crash-based modeling approach has long been used to evaluate the factors that contribute to cyclist injury risk at intersections. However, this approach has been criticized as crashes are required to occur before contributing factors can be identified and countermeasures can be implemented. Moreover, human factors related to dangerous behaviors are difficult to evaluate using crash-based methods. As an alternative, surrogate safety measures have been developed to address the issue of reliance on crash data. Despite recent developments, few methodologies and little empirical evidence exist on bicycle-vehicle interactions at intersections using video-based data and statistical analyses to identify associated factors. This study investigates bicycle-vehicle conflict severity and evaluates the impact of different factors, including gender, on cyclist risk at urban intersections with cycle tracks. A segmented ordered logit model is used to evaluate post-encroachment time between cyclists and vehicles. Video data was collected at seven intersections in Montreal, Canada. Road user trajectories were automatically extracted, classified, and filtered using a computer vision software to yield 1514 interactions. The discrete choice variable was generated by dividing post-encroachment time into normal interactions, conflicts, and dangerous conflicts. Independent variables reflecting attributes of the cyclist, vehicle, and environment were extracted either automatically or manually. Results indicated that an ordered model is appropriate for analyzing traffic conflicts and identifying key factors. Furthermore, exogenous segmentation was beneficial in comparing different segments of the population within a single model. Male cyclists, with all else being equal, were less likely than female cyclists to be involved in conflicts and dangerous conflicts at the studied intersections. Bicycle and vehicle speed, along with the time of the conflict relative to the red light phase, were other significant factors in conflict severity. These results will contribute to and further the understanding of gender differences in cycling within North America.     

Propensity scores-potential outcomes framework to incorporate severity probabilities in the Highway Safety Manual crash prediction algorithm

Accurate estimation of the expected number of crashes at different severity levels for entities with and without countermeasures plays a vital role in selecting countermeasures in the framework of the safety management process. The current practice is to use the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Highway Safety Manual crash prediction algorithms, which combine safety performance functions and crash modification factors, to estimate the effects of safety countermeasures on different highway and street facility types. Many of these crash prediction algorithms are based solely on crash frequency, or assume that severity outcomes are unchanged when planning for, or implementing, safety countermeasures. Failing to account for the uncertainty associated with crash severity outcomes, and assuming crash severity distributions remain unchanged in safety performance evaluations, limits the utility of the Highway Safety Manual crash prediction algorithms in assessing the effect of safety countermeasures on crash severity. This study demonstrates the application of a propensity scores-potential outcomes framework to estimate the probability distribution for the occurrence of different crash severity levels by accounting for the uncertainties associated with them. The probability of fatal and severe injury crash occurrence at lighted and unlighted intersections is estimated in this paper using data from Minnesota. The results show that the expected probability of occurrence of fatal and severe injury crashes at a lighted intersection was 1 in 35 crashes and the estimated risk ratio indicates that the respective probabilities at an unlighted intersection was 1.14 times higher compared to lighted intersections. The results from the potential outcomes-propensity scores framework are compared to results obtained from traditional binary logit models, without application of propensity scores matching. Traditional binary logit analysis suggests that the probability of occurrence of severe injury crashes is higher at lighted intersections compared to unlighted intersections, which contradicts the findings obtained from the propensity scores-potential outcomes framework. This finding underscores the importance of having comparable treated and untreated entities in traffic safety countermeasure evaluations.     

Exploring the impacts of factors contributing to tram-involved serious injury crashes on Melbourne tram routes

Previous research is limited regarding factors influencing tram-involved serious injury crashes. The aim of this study is to identify key vehicle, road, environment and driver related factors associated with tram-involved serious injury crashes. Using a binary logistic regression modelling approach, the following factors were identified to be significant in influencing tram-involved fatal crashes in Melbourne: tram floor height, tram age, season, traffic volume, tram lane priority and tram travel speed. Low floor trams, older trams, tram priority lanes and higher tram travelling speeds are more likely to increase tram-involved fatal crashes. Higher traffic volume decreases the likelihood of serious crashes. Fatal crashes are more likely to occur during spring and summer. Findings from this study may offer ideas for future research in the area of tram safety and help to develop countermeasures to prevent specific fatality types from occurring.     

城市区爆破项目安全监管方法探讨

随着城市区爆破作业增多以及爆破环境越来越复杂化,公安机关对爆破作业的安全监管工作任务及难度也逐渐增大。为保障社会公共安全,必须采取行之有效的方法,加强城市爆破作业的安全管理。根据近年杭州市区爆破作业安全监管工作的经验和体会,分析了目前城市区爆破作业管理现状以及存在的问题,提出了有针对性的对策,探讨了公安机关对爆破项目的审批、作业过程安全管理和安全警戒组织实施等几方面监管内容和方法,并通过实例说明了安全监管具体措施。结论认为,针对不同作业环境,采取相应监管措施,做到"五个严格把关",做好服务,确保安全。     

论我国网络购物网站的商品质量监管责任

在我国,网络购物网站作为买卖双方的交易平台和中介,应当承担起商品质量监管的责任。这既是商业模式和政策法规的要求,也是我国当前社会信用体系不完善情况下的必然选择。我国网络购物网站采取了在线信誉机制、质量检验和质量保证、提高市场准入等措施对商品质量进行监管。但现有措施仍存在诸多待完善之处,而且网络购物网站普遍未建立起商品质量监管体系,未完全营造出健康的、追求优质商品的文化和氛围。针对这些问题,网络购物网站应尽快采取相应对策加以改善。