Injuries from crashes crash

Geller, E. S., Applications of behavior analysis to prevent injury from vehicle crashes, monograph published by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Cambridge, MA, 1992a. 

However, many other aspects of driving are not followed naturally with feedback consequences, particularly those that can prevent injury from vehicle crashes. Although we get feedback to tell us our steering wheel, gas pedal, turn signal lever, and brakes work, we do not get natural feedback regarding our safe vs. at-risk use of such control devices. Therefore, as shown in Figure 8.9, feedback must be added to the driving situation if we want behavior to improve. 

Colonel Stapp, a career Air Force physician, used his own body for a lengthy series of tests over several years. His work led to a famous series of conferences on human physical tolerance and potential injuries from deceleration and automobile crashes. The conferences were called the Stapp Car Crash Conferences. ... 

One device that has reduced injuries from the second crash and saved lives is the seat belt. Seat belts became mandatory in 1968. Initially there was only a lap belt. By the 1980s a combined lap belt and shoulder harness became the standard. Eventually, lap belts expanded to rear seats. The combined lap belt and shoulder harness eventually became the standard for rear seats. The belt designs fit adults. Infant and child seats slowly evolved so that adult belts served as the primary restraints for them. Additional belts systems in child seats provided restraint to the seat for a child. 

Table 12-2. Risk of injury in a crash associated with current use of alcohol and drugs in real driving in the Netherlands (in terms of odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals) (from Movig et al, 2004, with permission from Elsevier ).

Figure 16-2. Risk of first injury or fatal crash (per 1,000 Swedish residents) in a motorcycle as a function of the rider age and socio-economic status of the parents. Based on a cohort bom in 1970-1971 and tracked from 1998-1995 (from Zambon and Hasselberg, 2006a, with permission from Elsevier),...

This study is among the first in France to study the risk of injury using crash and mobility data [GAB 05, MER 06, BER 11] and comparing road type nsers. This is one of the first studies that compares these risks based on crash data from the medical registry of the Rhone Coimty [LIC 11]. The Rhone road trauma registry is far more complete than the pohce crash data. The medical registry enables us to estimate the rates for various injury categories all-injury, hospitalization and serious-injury (MAIS 3+). 

Geller, E. S., Preventing injuries and deaths from vehicle crashes encouraging belts and discouraging booze, in Social Influence Processes and Prevention, Edwards, J., Undale, R. S., Heath, L., and Posavac, E. J., Eds., Plenum, New York, 1990. 

In this book we try to understand why complacency continues to rule, especially given that we now have sufficient scientific knowledge to eliminate the occurrence of disabling injury and death from road crashes without significantly diminishing the vital role that road use plays in our modem lifestyle. 

The 2009 World Health Organisation s (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety estimated that more than 1.2 million people die each year on the world s roads, and that between 20 and 50 million suffer nonfatal injuries. It also estimated that more than 90% of the world s fatalities resulting from road crashes occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world s registered motor vehicles. Of immense concern is the fact that these countries are now rapidly motorising and the death and disabling injury totals will increase dramatically over the next couple of decades unless radical change occurs. 

The dramatic progress in Sweden may be indicative of a radically different approach to traffic safety, especially when recent progress is examined. In the first decade of this century, Sweden reduced the total number of deaths from road crashes by almost 8% compared with reductions of less than 3% in each of Australia and the United States. Recall that Vision Zero was adopted as a philosophy for road transport in the Swedish parliament in the late 1990s. In Chapter 8 we explore in detail how prevailing road use culture and traffic safety performance interact. Equally importantly, we explore how a focus on the rate of transport safety reinforces a belief in the inevitability of death and serious injury as a price that must be paid for personal mobility. 

The nanny staters chant the mantra of personal responsibility, but personal responsibility means more than considering only personal outcomes. Even in a single-vehicle crash the community bears disproportionate costs. If a motorcyclist, for example, wishes to refrain from wearing a helmet, he should either sign a waiver to forgo publicly funded treatment in the event of a head injury from a motorcycle crash or pay an insurance pranium commensurate with the likely cost of treatment. When exposure to risk is collective, there is a collective responsibility that cannot be abrogated. 

Johnston, I. Reducing injury from speed related road crashes. Injury Prevention, 2004, 10 257-259. 

Road trauma is used to describe the aggregate of serious injuries and deaths from traffic crashes. The common Australian and New Zealand term road toll has been avoided except where part of a direct quote or the title of a cited reference. 

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