The effect of cell phones on international motor vehicle fatality rates: A panel-data analysis

This paper analyzes the effects of cell phone usage and economic freedom on motor vehicle death rates by estimating regression models on data for three years across 38 countries. The models incorporate a representative set of motor vehicle fatality determinants. Results indicate that cell phone use has a statistically significant nonlinear impact on highway death rates and that economic freedom does not appear to have an effect.     

Road traffic crashes with fatal and non-fatal injuries in Arkhangelsk,Russia in 2005–2010

The study investigated trends in traffic crashes with fatal and non-fatal injuries in Arkhangelsk, Russia in 2005–2010. Data were obtained from the road police. Negative binomial regression with time regressor was used to investigate trends in monthly incidence rates (IRs) of crashes, fatalities, and non-fatal injuries. During the six-year period, the police registered 4955 crashes with fatal and non-fatal injuries, which resulted in 217 fatalities and 5964 non-fatal injury cases. The IR of crashes with fatal and non-fatal injuries per total population showed no evident change, while the IR per increasing total number of motor vehicles decreased on average by 0.6% per month. Pedestrian crashes constituted 51.8% of studied crashes, and pedestrians constituted 54.6% of fatalities and 44.5% of non-fatal injuries. The IRs of pedestrian crashes and non-fatal pedestrian injuries per total population decreased on average by 0.3% per month, and these were the major trends in the data.     

Extended investigation on road fatality in Brunei

Road fatality is one of the leading causes of death in Brunei with 79 deaths in 1993, the highest ever recorded. The Brunei government has been trying to reduce this by implementing new traffic measures and successfully reduced fatalities to 24 fatalities in 2014. Yearly road fatality has been fluctuating, but there has been a declining tendency overall. The aim of this study is to investigate road fatality in Brunei by extending the research. We developed a multiple regression model and carried out an analysis on road fatality in Brunei. Our analysis indicates that the road fatality appears to rise depending on the increase in the number of young drivers between 15 to 24 years and the number of unemployed people. Comparisons of Brunei road fatality rate per 10,000 vehicles are made with some other countries and we conclude that Brunei has approximately the same rate as Australia in 2014.     

Fatality rate of pedestrians and fatal crash involvement rate of drivers in pedestrian crashes: a case study of Iran

The aim of this study was to uncover patterns of pedestrian crashes. In the first stage, 34,178 pedestrian-involved crashes occurred in Iran during a four-year period were grouped into homogeneous clusters using a clustering analysis. Next, some in-cluster and inter-cluster crash patterns were analysed. The clustering analysis yielded six pedestrian crash groups. Car/van/pickup crashes on rural roads as well as heavy vehicle crashes were found to be less frequent but more likely to be fatal compared to other crash clusters. In addition, after controlling for crash frequency in each cluster, it was found that the fatality rate of each pedestrian age group as well as the fatal crash involvement rate of each driver age group varies across the six clusters. Results of present study has some policy implications including, promoting pedestrian safety training sessions for heavy vehicle drivers, imposing limitations over elderly heavy vehicle drivers, reinforcing penalties toward under 19 drivers and motorcyclists. In addition, road safety campaigns in rural areas may be promoted to inform people about the higher fatality rate of pedestrians on rural roads. The crash patterns uncovered in this study might also be useful for prioritizing future pedestrian safety research areas.     

Electrical deaths in the US construction: an analysis of fatality investigations

Electrocution is among the ‘fatal four’ in US construction according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Learning from failures is believed to be an effective path to success, with deaths being the most serious system failures. This paper examined the failures in electrical safety by analysing all electrical fatality investigations (N = 132) occurring between 1989 and 2010 from the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation programme that is completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Results reveal the features of the electrical fatalities in construction and disclose the most common electrical safety challenges on construction sites. This research also suggests the sociotechnical system breakdowns and the less effectiveness of current safety training programmes may significantly contribute to worker's unsafe behaviours and electrical fatality occurrences.     

Modelling risk factors for fatal pedestrian crashes in Kolkata,India

Abstract

In developing countries, pedestrian safety is an issue of major concern. Although an extensive body of literature is available on the identification of elements related to the pedestrian’s risk; the studies are primarily conducted in urban areas of developed countries. The findings from these studies may only be partially relevant to the cities of an emerging country such as India. The present study analyzes historical crash records obtained from the “Kolkata Police” and identifies the risk factors at the road network level for the hazardous corridors posing a high risk to the pedestrians. The study findings reveal that pedestrians’ fatalities at intersections are associated with a high vehicular volume, higher pedestrian-vehicular interaction, high approach speed, overtaking tendency of vehicles, certain land-use type, encroachment of footpath, inadequate sight distance, inaccessible pedestrian crosswalk, wider minor carriageway, the absence of a pedestrian signal head, and lack of enforcement. On the other hand, the models outcomes reveal that pedestrians’ fatalities at midblock road segments are associated with low pedestrian volume, high approach speed, overtaking tendency of the vehicle, encroachment of footpath, on-street parking, wider road width, certain land-use type, inadequate sight distance, insufficient lighting, and inadequate pavement markings.     

Revealing global hot spots of technological disasters: 1900–2013

Technological disasters can happen in any country in the world and cause human fatalities, injuries, and economic damages, among other physical and social consequences. As the world adopts more technologies, becomes further industrialized, continues faster urbanization, and has larger and more concentrated population, the occurrences and impacts of technological disasters are likely to be more frequent and severe and call for more scholarly research. However, there is a lack of good models for reliable technological risk analysis, which is the foundation for effective preparation for, sound mitigation of, and quick recovery from technological disasters. This research develops an expected risk analysis model, including a base sub-model and a location quotient sub-model, for nearly 200 countries of the world, using the technological disasters recorded in the EM-DAT database for the period 1900–2013. The sub-models are based on country-level risk impacts in terms of expected fatalities, injuries, people affected, and economic losses, their standard deviations, ranges, and corresponding country percentages and ranks. The sub-models are validated using correlations and scatter plots for the observed and expected risk impacts. The results show that the sub-models perform well by yielding consistent expected risks and related measures, indicating that the expected risk analysis model is a reasonably good alternative to existing risk analysis models.