Self-reported accidents

Lloberes P, Levy G, Deseals C, et al. Self-reported sleepiness while driving as a risk factor for traffic accidents in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome and in non-apnoeic snorers. Respir Med 2000 94 971-976. 

Wu H, Yan-Go F. Self-reported automobile accidents involving patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Neurology 1996 46 1254—1257. 

Residents also report negative effects of sleep loss on their physical health. In one study of house officers in Scotland (71), both the number of hours worked and the number of hours slept while on call were associated with the number of somatic symptoms they reported experiencing over the previous year. In a recent resident survey study (72), sleep loss was associated with self-reported increased stress, accidents, and injuries, and alcohol and stimulant use sleep loss was correlated with stress and illness and injury levels, and with reported significant weight change and alcohol and medication use in a dose-dependent fashion. 

Huang, Y. H. et al. (2006). Safety climate and self-reported injury Assessing the mediating role of employee safety control. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 38(3), 425-433. 

Itoh, K., Andersen, H.B., Madsen, M.D., Ostergaard, D. and Ikeno, M. 2006. Patient views of adverse events Comparisons of self-reported healthcare staff attitudes with disclosure of accident information. Applied Ergonomics, 37, 513-23. 

The measures of the national culture were similar to the four types of national culture, namely individualism-collectivism, power distance (PD), uncertainty avoidance (UA), and masculinism-feminism as proposed by Hofstede (1980). The measures of stress coping behaviors were similar to Havlovic and Keenan s (1995) categories. The participants demographic data and their self-reported experience of involving flight accidents or events were also collected. 

It is easier to write about a culture that includes safety as a core value than it is to factually describe a situation in which the culture deteriorates over time, the effect the deterioration has on increasing risk and the position in which such deterioration places a safety professional. The following are excerpts taken from a report that was internally produced by BP Products North America (2005) pertaining to a fire and explosion that occurred on March 23,2005, at an owned and operated refinery in Texas City, Texas. As a result of that incident, 15 people were killed and over 170 were harmed. It is important to note that these excerpts, taken from the Executive Summary— Fatal Accident Investigation Report, represent a self-evaluation. 

The reports reviewed used consistent measures of exposure. Epidemiologieal studies of aviation accidents typically incorporate some measure of exposure (Li, 1994), such as flight hours documented during an investigation or self-reported flying hours. It is important to have a measure of exposure to interpret the relative risks associated with particular activities. In the reports on GA accident data reviewed during this project, the common measure of exposure was the total number of hours flown by GA per 100,000 hours. 

Blanchard, R.A., Myers, A.M., and Porter, M.M. 2010. Correspondence between self-reported and objective measures of driving exposure and patterns in older drivers. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42(2), 523-529. 

McGwin, G. Jr., C. Owsley and K. Ball (1998). Identifying crash involvement among older drivers agreement between self reports and state records. Accid. Anal Prev., 30(6), 781-791. 

But simply replicating the results does not validate them. The issue of validity is most often involved when we assume intervening variables and rely on surrogate measures of safety (rather than crash involvement). Thus, we should always question the validity of findings that are based on research in driving simulators and in studies relying on drivers self-reports or responses to questionnaires. In neither instance do we measure actual driving behavior, and in neither case do we know how to consider the accidents relative to real ones. 

Parada, M. A., L. D. Cohn, E. Gonzlez, T. Byrd d M. Cortes (2001). The validity of self-reported seat belt use Hispanic and non-Hispanic drivers in El Paso. Accid. Anal. Prev.,33, 139-143. 

StrefF, F. M. and A. C. Wagenaar (1989). Are there really shortcuts Estimating seat belt use with self-report measures. Accid, Anal Prev, 21,509-516. 

Shinar, D., E. Schechtman and R. P. Compton (2001). Self-Reports of safe driving behaviors in relationship to sex, age, education and income in the U.S. adult driving population. Accid. Anal Prev., 33,111-116. 

This popular but ineffective approach to injury prevention is based on the intuitive notion of "accident proneness." The strategy is to identify aspects of accident proneness among job applicants and then screen out people with critical levels of certain characteristics. Accident proneness characteristics targeted for measurement and screening have included anxiety, distractibility, tension, insecurity, beliefs about injury control, general expectancies about personal control of life events, social adjustment, reliability, impulsivity, sensation seeking, boredom susceptibility, and self-reported alcohol use. 

Reporting and collection of data on accident risks by means of accident and near-accident investigations, workplace inspections, SHE audits and risk analyses. Methods of data collection include observation, interviews, self-reporting, group discussions, electronic registration, etc. 

The employees self-reporting of unsafe conditions by filling in a form is complementary to the traditional informal notification of the immediate supervisor. This self-reporting follows the same basic principles as those of near-accident reporting, and usually the same form is employed. Information on deviations and shortcomings in design and routines at the workplace are... 

Experiences of the British Airway Safety Services (BASIS) near-accident reporting system support the use of a form for self-reporting with open-ended questions according to the first principle (Reason, 1997). BASIS first tried a form with questions concerning types of human errors and contributing factors, where the answers were given in a multiple-choice format. The resulting data suffered from poor validity and reliability. 

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