Belt Usage Research Articles

Response of part-time belt users to enhanced seat belt reminder systems of different duty cycles and duration

Enhanced seat belt reminders are an effective means of increasing seat belt use. It is important to optimize the design of these systems so that they increase belt use and are acceptable to vehicle occupants. This study examined the effects of duty cycle and duration on seat belt reminder effectiveness and annoyance. It also evaluated the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) duration requirement. Eighty part-time belt users experienced one of four seat belt reminders in a driving simulator and rated the likelihood that they would buckle up and how annoyed they were every 45 s. Overall, participants that experienced an enhanced reminder said they would be more likely to buckle up than participants that experienced a basic reminder which complied with but did not exceed the US federal requirements. The reported likelihood of buckling up did not change significantly as reminder duration increased. Increasing the duty cycle of the chime and flashing icon in a reminder cycle did not influence these ratings either, but it did make the system more annoying. Reducing the duty cycle of enhanced reminders would be one method of increasing user acceptance while ensuring the reminder system still motivates belt use. Lastly, the variation in duration and duty cycle permitted under Euro NCAP requirements for seat belt reminders did not affect the reported likelihood of belt use for participants in the three enhanced reminder conditions.

Obesity, Where Is It Driving Us?

Obesity is recognized as an important issue that has an impact on several areas of our daily lives, such as driving. In the literature there exists an association between obesity and motor vehicle crashes. The goal of this article is to promote insightful reflection and discussion around this emerging topic. Searches were conducted on Pubmed. Search terms were “obesity” and “driving.” The literature was sorted into a summary of the general ideas and is presented for discussion. Relevant issues discussed include anthromechanical issues and car design, seat belt usage, and obesity-related health complications (ocular pathologies, diabetic complications, and obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnea). Finally, though limited prevention strategies exist for these issues in the literature, some strategies are presented for consideration. With such a complex issue, there is no simple solution. Education is the first step, and with a comprehensive understanding of the risks, actions can be taken to prevent these issues.

Analysis of Risk Factors Affecting the Severity of Intersection Crashes by Logistic Regression

Objective: The objective of this research was to study the risk factors that significantly influence the severity of intersection crashes for vehicle occupants, as well as for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. Methods: Logistic regression was applied as the method in this study to analyze a data set of intersection crashes involving casualties in Victoria, Australia, for the period January 2000 to December 2009. Results: Seven risk factors obtained were found to be significantly associated with the severity of intersection crashes, including driver age and gender, speed zone, traffic control type, time of day, crash type, and seat belt usage. Conclusions: This study found that male drivers as well as older drivers (age 65 and above) had higher odds of being involved in fatal intersection crashes. Intersection crashes occurring between midnight and early morning (12:00 a.m. to 5:59 a.m.), in 100 km/h speed zones, or with no traffic control had a higher odds of a fatal outcome than their counterpart categories. Furthermore, intersection crashes involving pedestrians or a non–seat belt–wearing driver were more likely to lead to a fatal outcome. In general, identification of risk factors and the discussion of the odds ratio between levels on the impact of the intersection crash severity would be beneficial for road safety stakeholders to develop initiatives to reduce the severity of intersection crashes.

Investigation of seat belt use among the drivers of different education levels

Seat belt use habit has been investigated according to the education level of drivers. Copies of a questionnaire were distributed to 1000 participants of four different education levels. Factors such as seat belt usage habit, restricting factors and crash data have been investigated. Data have been analyzed with SPSS 15.0 software. Increased level of education leads to increased seat belt usage, lower numbers of crashes and crash severities. The factors restricting seat belt use are lack of habit, discomfort and short distance driving. The use of precaution signal and increases in comfort can increase seat belt usage. The primary and high school education on traffic safety and seat belt usage has been serving the purpose.

Commercial Driver Factors in Run-off-Road Crashes

The number of commercial vehicles on U.S. roads has grown dramatically over the past few decades. Although the number of large trucks involved in fatal and injury crashes has decreased over the past 20 years, large trucks still have a higher fatal crash involvement rate than passenger cars do. This study sought to gain insights on the impact of commercial driver factors on crash severity with respect to single-vehicle, run-off-road (ROR) crashes. A logistic model was conducted with large truck crash data from the Washington State Department of Transportation (years 2006 to 2009). The model predicted the effects of truck driver distraction, inattention, speeding, seat belt usage, and drowsiness and fatigue on the likelihood of an ROR crash involving injury or fatality. Other factors, such as environmental conditions, roadway types, and truck-related factors, were controlled in the model. Results indicated that speeding, drowsiness and fatigue, and distraction and inattention strongly affected increasing crash severity. As expected, seat belt use significantly decreased the severity of an ROR crash. The study confirms that several driver factors observed in other studies on crash likelihood are also significant for ROR crashes involving large trucks.

Effects of Seat Belt Usage on Injury Pattern and Outcome of Vehicle Occupants After Road Traffic Collisions: Prospective Study

Injury and death from road traffic collisions (RTCs) is a major health problem worldwide. The seat belt is the most important RTC safety innovation to reduce injury severity and death from RTCs. We aimed to study the effects of seat belt usage on injury patterns and outcomes of restrained vehicle occupants compared with unrestrained occupants after RTCs. RTC trauma patients who were vehicle occupants and admitted to Al-Ain and Tawam Hospitals, or who died after arrival at the emergency departments were prospectively studied during the period of April 2006 to October 2007. Demography of patients, position in the vehicle, usage of seat belts, injury severity markers, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), hospital stay, need for surgery, injured body regions, and mortality were analyzed. Of 783 vehicle occupants, 766 (98%) patients with known seat belt status were studied. Among them, the 631 (82.4%) who were unrestrained were significantly younger than the restrained patients (P < 0.0001). The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores for the thorax, back, and lower extremity were significantly higher in unrestrained than in restrained patients (P = 0.001, P = 0.036, and P = 0.045 respectively). The GCS was significantly lower in unrestrained than in restrained patients (P = 0.006). More surgical operations were performed in the unrestrained patients (P = 0.027). Seat belt usage reduces the severity of injury, hospital stay, and number of operations in injured patients. Seat belt compliance is low in our community. More legal enforcement of seat belt usage is mandatory to reduce the severity of injury caused by RTCs.

Seven-Year Trends in Employee Health Habits From a Comprehensive Workplace Health Promotion Program at Vanderbilt University

To assess long-term changes in health risks for employees participating in Vanderbilt University's incentive-based worksite wellness program. Descriptive longitudinal trends were examined for employees' health risk profiles for the period of 2003 to 2009. The majority of risk factors improved over time with the most consistent change occurring in physical activity. The proportion of employees exercising one or more days per week increased from 72.7% in 2003 to 83.4% in 2009. Positive annual, monotonic changes were also observed in percentage for nonsmokers and seat belt usage. Although the largest improvements occurred between the first two years, improvements continued without significant regression toward baseline. This 7-year evaluation, with high participation and large sample size, provides robust estimates of health improvements that can be achieved through a voluntary incentive-based wellness program.

Dump truck‐related deaths in construction, 1992–2007

Dump trucks are universally used in construction and other industries to haul materials to the location and to remove waste materials. The source for dump truck-related fatality data was the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) Research File. From 1992 to 2007, 829 construction workers were killed in dump truck-related incidents nationwide. Of those, 336 were dump truck operators with 215 deaths occurring in street and highway incidents. Another 343 deaths involved workers on foot, three-quarters struck by dump trucks. Sixty-four of the construction workers killed were maintaining dump trucks, 22 when caught between the truck frame and a falling dump truck bed. Of the 86 other deaths, 55 involved streets and highways. Recommendations include: (i) improving the reporting of seat belt usage in fatality reports; (ii) requiring use of seat belts; (iii) requiring the use of backup alarms, spotters, or other methods to alert dump truck operators to workers in their blind spots; (iv) prohibiting direct dumping at river banks and embankments; (v) using cameras or radar to enforce stopping at railway crossings; and (xi) enforcing worker safety practices (e.g., lockout/tagout procedures on elevated dump truck beds).

Análise das ocorrências das lesões no trânsito e fatores relacionados segundo resultados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) Brasil, 2008

The study describes the estimates of occurrence of injury due to traffic accidents among the Brazilian population based on data obtained from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). It is a probabilistic sample, in which 391,868 people were interviewed. in three stages, namely municipalities, census sectors and households. The traffic accident (TA) and the safety belt usage variables were described according to socio-demographic variables and region of residence. Proportions, 95% confidence intervals, χ² tests and p values were calculated. 2.5% (CI95% 2.4-2.6%) of the population reported higher traffic accident (TA) incidence among males (3.5%; CI95%: 3.4-3.6), youths (4.4%; CI95%: 4.2-4.6) and residents in the Central-West region (3.3% CI95%3.0-3.6). Most of the events involved drivers or passengers of cars or vans (53.9%), followed by motorcyclists or pillion passengers (30.1%), cyclists (7.6%) and pedestrians (5.25%). The front seat safety belt is used by 73.2% (CI95% 72.2-74.2) and the rear seat safety belt is only used by 37.4% (CI95% 36.6-38.2). Traffic accidents led to the abandonment of their habitual activities by 30.7% of those involved. The severity of injuries in traffic accidents demands further preventive and legislative measures to reduce such incidents.

An experimental approach towards the evaluation of a seat belt campaign with an inside view on the psychology behind seat belt use

A Belgian national safety belt campaign was evaluated by means of a questionnaire survey in an adolescent sample. The evaluation was done through a three group after-only design with the use of one control group and two experimental groups. The first experimental group, the attentive group, was exposed to the campaign material in a very direct, attentive way, whereas the second experimental group, the pre-attentive group, was exposed rather inattentively. The framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was applied and extended with a habit and a past behaviour variable in order to verify whether seat belt usage is to be understood as an automaticity mechanism (i.e., habitual or repeated past behaviour) or as planned behaviour. In terms of campaign effect, the comparison of the pre-attentive group and the control group revealed no significant differences. However, the attentive group and the control group differed significantly regarding two basic dimensions of perceived behavioural control (i.e., confidence and motivation), habit, past behaviour, behavioural intention and behaviour. In terms of explaining seat belt usage, linear regression models were fitted and gave most support for the repeated past behaviour approach. According to the latter, using seat belts is recycling an originally reasoned behaviour, yet without systematically going through the whole underlying reasoning every time a situation in which the decision to wear a seat belt (or not) presents itself. The practical implications of these findings are discussed more in detail.

Knowledge, attitude and use of seat belt among commercial drivers in Sokoto Metropolis

Background: Every year about 1.2 million people are killed on the world’s roads and up to 50 million are injured or disabled as a result of road traffic accidents. The effectiveness of seat belt usage in reducing the severity of the sequelae of road traffic accidents is widely known. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and use of seat belt among commercial drivers in Sokoto Metropolis.Methods: The study design was cross-sectional and descriptive. Pre-tested, structured, interviewer administered questionnaires were used for data collection. Each correct response to the knowledge questions was scored one mark and wrong response or non-response was scored zero.Results: A total of 430 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean knowledge score (%) of the study subjects was high (64.8±17.7). Majority (57.9%) of the respondents had positive attitude towards compulsory use of seat belt. 363 (84.4%) of the respondents reported that they use seat belt when they drive. There were statistically significant associations between age (p

The rate of compliance to seat belt usage among automobile drivers on three categories of roads in Nigeria: an observational survey

Injuries to head, chest and abdomen are a major cause of death for unrestrained vehicle occupants, particularly the drivers. The use of seat belts therefore plays a significant role in reducing the severity of injuries. The study examined the compliance rate of seat belt use on different road hierarchies in Abeokuta (Nigeria) using an observatory method. Findings indicated that there was 54%, 37.3% and 13.6% compliance rate on three categories of roads studied. Also, females complied more with the use of seat belts on each of the roads with compliance rates at 43.3%, 47.2% and 50% compared with males who had 32.6%, 38.6% and 39.6% seat belt compliance rates. Chi-square analysis showed significant variations in the use of seat belt on the roads (p < 0.05). The paper suggests increased awareness and enforcement of traffic laws among others in order to ensure sustainable use of seat belts among motorists in Nigeria.

Factors influencing students’ usage of school bus seat belts: An empirical analysis of the Alabama pilot project

The Alabama State Department of Education and the Governor's Study Group on School Bus Seat Belts authorized and funded a research project to investigate the effects of lap-shoulder seat belts on Alabama school buses. This article performs an empirical analysis to address an important component of the study – factors that impact students’ decisions about wearing seat belts or not on school buses. Discrete choice modeling framework is applied to quantify relative influences of various factors. To obtain the disaggregate level information on individual student's characteristics and trip properties, a new data collection protocol is developed. Eleven variables are investigated and eight of them are found to have significant impacts. They are age, gender, the home county of a student, a student's trip length, time of day, presence and active involvement of bus aide, and two levels of bus driver involvement. The resulting model fits the data well and reveals several trends that have been overlooked or underestimated in the literature. The model can also be used to predict the change of seat belt usage rate caused by the change of impact factors. This is helpful in identifying the most cost-effective ways to improve compliance rate, which is critical to bring the added safety benefit of seat belts into effect. This article is the first to quantify relative impacts of a range of variables using rigorous statistical modeling techniques. This study will contribute to the literature and provide valuable insights to the practice of school transportation management.

Analysis of factors associated with traffic injury severity on rural roads in Iran

:Background:Iran is a country with one of the highest rates of traffic crash fatality and injury, and seventy percent of these fatalities happen on rural roads. The objective of this study is to identify the significant factors influencing injury severity among drivers involved in crashes on two kinds of major rural roads in Iran: two-lane, two-way roads and freeways.Methods:According to the dataset, 213569 drivers were involved in rural road crashes in Iran, over the 3 years from 2006 to 2008. The Classification And Regression Tree method (CART) was applied for 13 independent variables, and one target variable of injury severity with 3 classes of no-injury, injury and fatality. Some of the independent variables were cause of crash, collision type, weather conditions, road surface conditions, driver's age and gender and seat belt usage. The CART model was trained by 70% of these data, and tested with the rest.Results:It was indicated that seat belt use is the most important safety factor for two-lane, two-way rural roads, but on freeways, the importance of this variable is less. Cause of crash, also turned out to be the next most important variable. The results showed that for two-lane, two-way rural roads, "improper overtaking" and "speeding", and for rural freeways, "inattention to traffic ahead", "vehicle defect", and "movement of pedestrians, livestock and unauthorized vehicles on freeways" are the most serious causes of increasing injury severity. Conclusions:The analysis results revealed seat belt use, cause of crash and collision type as the most important variables influencing the injury severity of traffic crashes. To deal with these problems, intensifying police enforcement by means of mobile patrol vehicles, constructing overtaking lanes where necessary, and prohibiting the crossing of pedestrians and livestock and the driving of unauthorized vehicles on freeways are necessary. Moreover, creating a rumble strip on the two edges of roads, and paying attention to the design consistency of roads can be a helpful factor in order to prevent events such as "overturning" and improve the overall safety of freeways.

Crashworthiness evaluation of an intercity coach against rollover accidents

Rollover accidents can result in serious consequences to vehicle occupants if necessary safety measures are not taken. Two significant measures that can be implemented to minimise occupant injury risk during vehicular rollover events are structural adequacy of the vehicle against crushing and occupant protection by using passive protective devices, such as safety belts and air bags. The aim of this study is to evaluate the structural resistance and passenger injury risks and compare the effectiveness of safety belt usage during a simulated rollover event. In this study, a 13 m long TEMSA bus was used as the vehicle. A total of eight occupants were placed in the critical places of the bus by considering the structurally weakest sections. Three different occupant protection cases were considered: (i) no safety belt; (ii) two-point safety belt and (iii) three-point safety belt. A standard rollover procedure was simulated using non-linear finite element code LS-DYNA. Head and neck injury criteria were used for all three cases to evaluate the effectiveness of seat belt usage on occupant protection. Simulation results clearly illustrated that if occupants had no seat belt protection they suffered serious risk of injuries. Moreover, two- and three-point safety belts provided somewhat similar protection levels for most of the occupants. On the basis of findings, use of two-point safety belts in all the seats of the TEMSA buses was recommended because of their ease of handling.

The changes in usage of seat belts in Antalya, Turkey

Antalya is an important tourism city and located on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. According to the Turkey Statistical Institute, approximately 7.5 million tourists visit Antalya each year. Turkey has a bad reputation about traffic safety. The rate of usage seat belt is too much high level like 80-90 percent in the developed countries. As a developing country, in Turkey, the rate of usage seat belt is one of the biggest matters. According to different studies, seat belt usage rate is below the 20% in Turkey. Therefore, if this ratio could increase, fatalities can be decreased. In this study, causes of this low ratio investigated about Antalya, changes in last year and difference between city centre and intercity roads and differences according to gender discussed and some arrangements suggested to increasing the ratio.

Examining injury severity in left turning crashes at intersections

In response to the increasing concerns and challenges for most frequently left-turn crashes at intersections, partial proportional odds models, for which some of the beta coefficients vary across variables, are proposed to examine and understand the influence of contributory factors (i.e. human attributes, traffic flow features, roadway geometrics, and environmental factors, etc.) on injury severity involved in left-turn crashes, using the selected 317 crash data over latest 6 years from Xian city. The results show that partial proportional odds model has better performance than general ordered logit or probit probability approach. Specifically, the aged and younger drivers are more prone to cause left-turn crashes, and the increasing effect of trucks involvement, impact points of both vehicles, environmental factors, safety belt usage, alcohol and/or drugs are also significantly associated with higher injury severities, which was underestimated or underreported in previous researches.

Seat belt use during pregnancy in Iran: attitudes and practices

Objective Seat belt use during pregnancy reduces injury to the mother and her fetus. During recent years, the use of seat belts has been mandated by law in Iran. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes and practices of pregnant women regarding seat belt use. Methods In this cross-sectional study, we asked 335 pregnant women at a hospital-based prenatal care clinic on the use of safety belt before and during pregnancy. SPSS version 13.0 was used for data analysis. Results The mean age of study subjects was 27.3 years±5.3 years with the median of 27 years. Compared with the seat belt use before pregnancy, no change was detected in 48.7% of the women; seat belt use had increased in 17.5 % of them and decreased in 33.8 %. Eighty-one percent of women knew the correct placing of both lap belt and shoulder belt. Only 4% of women had received education on proper restraint use during pregnancy. Conclusion The prevalence of seat belt use during pregnancy is lower than reports which are mostly from developed nations. The fact that about one-third of women have decreased their seat belt usage during pregnancy highlights the importance of education of mothers on this topic.

Identification of Factors Leading to High Severity of Crashes in Rural Areas

This study made an effort to identify critical factors contributing to increased crash severities on rural highways. Crash data from the Kansas Accident Reporting System (KARS) database was analyzed and crash severity was modeled using ordered choice models. Many driver-related factors, such as alcohol involvement, lack of seat belt usage, excessive speed, and driver ejections because of the crash contribute to the increased severity of crashes in rural areas. Also, severities of single-vehicle crashes are higher than two-vehicle and animal-vehicle crashes. Factors related to roadway geometry such as sharp curves and steep grades are also found to contribute to the increased crash severity in rural areas.

National burden of injuries and violence: a household survey in Egypt

IntroductionIn 2008, Injury was ranked as the 5th leading cause of mortality and 3rd cause of hospitalisation in Egypt. The aim of the survey was to identify the burden and...