Safety, Volume 3, Issue 4 (December 2017) – 8 articles

Naturalistic driving (ND) methods may be particularly useful for research on young driver crash risk. Novices are not safe drivers initially, but tend to improve rapidly, although the pace of learning is highly variable. However, knowledge is lacking about how best to reduce the learning curve and the variability in the development of safe driving judgment. A great deal has been learned from recent naturalistic driving (ND) studies that have included young drivers, providing objective information on the nature of crash risk and the factors that contribute to safety critical events. This research indicates that most learners obtain at least the amount of practice driving recommended and develop important driving skills. Unfortunately, most learners are not exposed during training to more complex driving situations and the instruction provided by supervising parents is mostly reactive and may not fully prepare teens for independent driving. While supervised practice driving is quite safe, crash rates are high during the first six months or so of independent driving then decline rapidly, but remain high for years relative to experienced drivers. Contributing factors to crash risk include exposure, inexperience, elevated gravitational-force event rates, greater willingness to engage in secondary tasks while driving, and social influence from peer passengers. The findings indicate the need and possible objectives for improving practice driving instruction and developing innovative prevention approaches for the first year of independent driving. Full article

Dingus and colleagues (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2016, 113, 2636–2641) reported a crash odds ratio (OR) estimate of 2.2 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) from 1.6 to 3.1 for hand-held cell phone conversation (hereafter, “Talk”) in the SHRP 2 naturalistic driving database. This estimate is substantially higher than the effect sizes near one in prior real-world and naturalistic driving studies of conversation on wireless cellular devices (whether hand-held, hands-free portable, or hands-free integrated). Two upward biases were discovered in the Dingus study. First, it selected many Talk-exposed drivers who simultaneously performed additional secondary tasks besides Talk but selected Talk-unexposed drivers with no secondary tasks. This “selection bias” was removed by: (1) filtering out records with additional tasks from the Talk-exposed group; or (2) adding records with other tasks to the Talk-unexposed group. Second, it included records with driver behavior errors, a confounding bias that was also removed by filtering out such records. After removing both biases, the Talk OR point estimates declined to below 1, now consistent with prior studies. Pooling the adjusted SHRP 2 Talk OR estimates with prior study effect size estimates to improve precision, the population effect size for wireless cellular conversation while driving is estimated as 0.72 (CI 0.60–0.88). Full article

The cause of serious and fatal thoracic injuries in passenger vehicle rollover crashes is currently not well understood. Previous research on thoracic injuries resulting from rollover crashes have focused primarily on statistical analysis of crash data. This study seeks to develop a better understanding of where in the rollover sequence thoracic injuries may occur. To do this, a real-world passenger vehicle rollover crash where the driver sustained serious bilateral thoracic injuries was reconstructed. Multi-body analysis was used to determine the vehicle’s pre-trip trajectory and to obtain the vehicle’s position and kinematics at the point of trip. This information was then used to prescribe the motion of the vehicle in a finite element analysis. A finite element model of the EuroSID-2re anthropomorphic test device was placed in the driver’s seat. Four simulations, each with the anthropomorphic test device positioned in different postures, were performed. Rib deflection, spinal acceleration, and thoracic impact velocity were obtained from the anthropomorphic test device and compared to existing thoracic injury assessment reference values. From the analysis, lateral thoracic impact velocity indicates that a serious thoracic injury is likely to have occurred when the driver impacted the centre console during the vehicle’s fourth quarter-turn. Full article

Crew resource management (CRM) training for flight crews is widespread and has been credited with improving aviation safety. As other industries have adopted CRM, they have interpreted CRM in different ways. We sought to understand how industries have adopted CRM, regarding its conceptualisation and evaluation. For this, we conducted a systematic review of CRM studies in the Maritime, Nuclear Power, Oil and Gas, and Air Traffic Control industries. We searched three electronic databases (Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus) and CRM reviews for papers. We analysed these papers on their goals, scope, levers of change, and evaluation. To synthesise, we compared the analysis results across industries. We found that most CRM programs have the broad goals of improving safety and efficiency. However, there are differences in the scope and levers of change between programs, both within and between industries. Most evaluative studies suffer from methodological weaknesses, and the evaluation does not align with how studies conceptualise CRM. These results challenge the assumption that there is a clear link between CRM training and enhanced safety in the analysed industries. Future CRM research needs to provide a clear conceptualisation—how CRM is expected to improve safety—and select evaluation measures consistent with this. Full article

Transdermal microneedles have captured the attention of researchers in relation to a variety of applications, and silicone-based moulds required to produce these systems are now widely available and can be readily manufactured on the lab bench. There is however some concern over the potential for accidental needlestick injuries and, as with any sharp hazard, the potential for blood-borne pathogen transmission must be considered. This follows from recent governmental concerns over the use of microneedle systems in dermabrasion. Despite the piercing nature of the microneedle patch sharing many similarities with conventional hypodermic needles, there are notable factors that mitigate the risk of contamination. A range of microneedle systems has been prepared using micromoulding techniques, and their puncture capability assessed. A critical assessment of the potential for accidental puncture and the control measures needed to ensure safe utilisation of the patch systems is presented. Full article

Objectives: Child Restraint System (CRS) misuse is common. We characterized caregivers’ use of child passenger safety informational and instructional resources and determined whether there were differences in the quality of CRS installations associated with prior exposure to specific resources as evaluated in a standardized CRS installation environment. Methods: Caregivers completed self-report surveys and installed a forward-facing CRS in a controlled environment. Installations were evaluated for security (tightness) and accuracy (no errors) by a child passenger safety technician (CPST). Results: CRS manuals were the most common way caregivers learned to install a CRS. Primary care providers (PCP)s were the most frequently endorsed source of CRS safety information. There was no strong pattern of associations between prior exposure to resources and installation quality (security or accuracy), although some evidence supports protective effects of learning from CPSTs; 13% (19 out of 151) installations were secure and 57% (86 out of 151) installations were accurate. Conclusions: A focus on developing effective and lasting behavioral interventions is needed. Full article

Human error remains a major cause of several accidents in the oil and gas (O&G) industry. While human error has been analysed in several industries and has been at the centre of many debates and commentaries, a detailed, systematic and comprehensive analysis of human error in the O&G industry has not yet been conducted. Hence, this report aims to use the Technique for Retrospective and Predictive Analysis of Cognitive Errors (TRACEr) to analyse historical accidents in the O&G industry. The study has reviewed 163 major and/or fatal O&G industry accidents that occurred between 2000 and 2014. The results obtained have shown that the predominant context for errors was internal communication, mostly influenced by factors of perception. Major accident events were crane accidents and falling objects, relating to the most dominant accident type: ‘Struck by’. The main actors in these events were drillers and operators. Generally, TRACEr proved very useful in identifying major task errors. However, the taxonomy was less useful in identifying both equipment errors and errors due to failures in safety critical control barriers and recovery measures. Therefore, a modified version of the tool named Technique for the Retrospective and Predictive Analysis of Cognitive Errors for the Oil and Gas Industry (TRACEr-OGI) was proposed and used. This modified analytical tool was consequently found to be more effective for accident analysis in the O&G industry. Full article

The European Union (EU) promotes a gradual lifting of restrictions on foreign hauliers involved in domestic road transport of goods (cabotage), and liberalization of the current road cabotage rules may further increase the proportion of foreign heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on Norwegian roads. The aims of the present study are to: (1) Examine the safety outcomes of increasing internationalisation in (Norwegian) road transport of goods; and (2) Discuss the importance of potential risk factors related to increasing proportions of foreign HGVs on Norwegian roads. We use four data sources to shed light on the aims. Results show that foreign HGVs account for 6% of the average domestic transport in Norway, and 11% of the HGVs involved in personal injury accidents. Additionally, foreign HGVs have a three times higher risk of single vehicle accidents, and twice the risk of head-on collisions. Foreign HGV drivers also seem more likely to trigger fatal accidents. We conclude that two risk factors seem to be important: (1) experience with/competence on Norwegian roads and (2) winter driving. Thus, the safety challenge is not that the drivers are foreign, but that they to some extent lack experience with, and competence on, the Norwegian road networks and the challenges that these roads may pose (e.g., narrow roads with high gradients, many curves, snow and ice). Previous research from other countries has also found that lacking experience with national road networks is an important risk factor. Given our results on risk factors, we may hypothesize that if foreign HGV drivers get more experience and education on Norwegian driving conditions, then increased internationalization could perhaps be of less concern in road safety. When discussing the higher accident risk and lower experience of foreign HGV drivers in Norway, it is important to note that the reason for foreign HGV drivers, working for foreign hauliers, to drive in Norway is that there are customers of the goods in Norway. Interviewees stressed that the foreign driver is often the last link in a long and complex chain of actors involved in the transport. Although these actors have a legal responsibility to “contribute to safety,” interviewees stated that this responsibility is vague and not clearly enforced. We therefore suggest the clarification of, and an increase in, the responsibilities of the different parties involved in goods transport, especially the transport buyers. This means to both ensure the experience and training of the drivers (e.g., preparing them properly to drive on winter roads), and to positively influence their transport safety in other ways (e.g., reducing stress and time-pressure). Full article