Motorized Vehicle Safety

Course Announcement: Fall 2018 Injury Prevention and Control

July 17, 2018
SafeTREC

Fall 2018 Injury Prevention and Control Flyer

Observational Study of Cell Phone and Texting Use Among California Drivers 2012 and Comparison to 2011 Data

Cooper, Jill F.
Ragland, David R.
Ewald, Katrin
Wasserman, Lisa
Murphy, Christopher J.
2013

This methodological report describes survey research and data collection methods employed for the second Observational Survey of Cell Phone and Texting Use among California Drivers study conducted in 2012. This study was conducted by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W) on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at University of California at Berkeley. The survey’s goal was to obtain a statewide statistically representative observational sample of California’s cell phone use behaviors, focusing on...

National Teen Driver Safety Week October 15 - 21

October 16, 2017

Did you know that car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, ahead of all other types of injury, disease, or violence? To shed light on this epidemic and reduce the number of lives lost, National Teen Driver Safety Week will be held this week from October 15 - 21.

NHTSA Teen Driver Safety GraphicThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that nationwide in...

Drinking and driving and perceptions of arrest risk among California drivers: Relationships with DUI arrests in their city of residence

MacLeod, Kara E.
Karriker-Jaffe, Katherine J.
Satariano, William A.
Kelley-Baker, Tara
Lacey, John H.
Ragland, David R.
2017

Objective: Addressing drinking and driving remains a challenge in the United States. The present study aims to provide feedback on driving under the influence (DUI) in California by assessing whether drinking and driving behavior is associated with the DUI arrest rates in the city in which the driver lives; whether this is due to perceptions that one can get arrested for this behavior; and whether this differed by those drivers who would be most affected by deterrence efforts (those most likely to drink outside the home).

Methods: This study consisted of a 2012 roadside survey of 1,...

Course Announcement: Fall 2017 Injury Prevention and Control

July 25, 2017
SafeTREC

The Inclusion of Adult Vehicle Occupants in Matched Cohort Studies of Child Restraint Effectiveness: A Study of Potential Bias

Rice, Thomas M.
Anderson, Craig L.
2010

Objective: To determine whether either the inclusion of adults in matched cohort studies of passenger vehicle occupants or modification of age effects by collision severity biases child restraint risk ratios biases estimate of child restraint effectiveness.

Methods: Monte Carlo data simulations were conducted to represent 10,000 collision-involved vehicles carrying a mix of children and adults. The effects of age category, adult seat belt use, child seat belt use, and child safety seat use were set to known values. Age was a modifier of the adult and child seat belt risk ratios and...

Alcohol Consumption and Incidence of Workers' Compensation Claims: A 5-Year Prospective Study of Urban Transit Operators

Ragland, David R.
Krause, Niklas
Greiner, Birgit A.
Holman, Barbara L.
Fisher, June M.
Cunradi, Carol B.
2002

Numerous studies have linked alcohol impairment on the job to occupational injury. Few studies have looked at the association of nonwork drinking and occupational injury. This study examines first workers' compensation claims after a baseline assessment of alcohol consumption and other occupational variables in 1836 transit operators participating in a medical examination for driver's license renewal. A proportional hazard model was used for the analysis.

Individuals with higher alcohol consumption were more likely to be male, have more years of driving, and have a higher job-...

Traffic Volume and Collisions Involving Transit and Nontransit Vehicles

Ragland, David R.
Hundenski, Ronald J.
Holman, Barbara L.
Fisher, June M.
1991

This study reports an analysis of collisions occurring between public transit vehicles operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway System (Muni), the public transit agency for the City of San Francisco, and nontransit vehicles. The analysis, focusing on weekday collisions during 1987, demonstrated a strong association between hourly transit collisions rates and hourly traffic volume. The collision rate varied from 0.01 per 1,000 Muni vehicle-hours of operation during the interval 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., a time of very low traffic...

Objective Stress Factors, Accidents, and Absenteeism in Transit Operators: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence

Greiner, Birgit A.
Krause, Niklas
Ragland, David R.
Fisher, June
1998

The authors used observational job analysis as a conceptually based technique to measure stress factors unbiased by worker appraisal with 81 transit driving tasks on 27 transit lines. Stressor dimensions included work barriers that interfere with task performance due to poor technical-organizational design, time pressure, time binding (autonomy over time management), and monotonous conditions. Line-specific average stressor values were assigned to 308 transit operators who mainly worked the particular line. Logistic regression analyses showed associations for high work barriers and...

Automated Assessment of Safety-Critical Dynamics in Multi-modal Transportation Systems

Medury, Aditya
Yu, Mengqiao
Bourdais, Cedric
Grembek, Offer
2016

Recent mobility trends reveal that travel is becoming increasing multi-modal in nature. Given the increase in the emphasis on multi-modal mobility there is a need to efficiently account for the multi-modal safety challenges it introduces. In light of this, it is of immense concern that the corresponding improvements made to traffic safety have not been commensurate across all modes. In this regard, one of the major challenges associated with efficiently designing and planning for a safe multi-modal environment is a limited understanding of multi-modal traffic behavior as explained by...