Safety Belt Usage Research Articles

An Improved Safety Belt Detection Algorithm for High-Altitude Work Based on YOLOv8

High-altitude work poses significant safety risks, and wearing safety belts is crucial to prevent falls and ensure worker safety. However, manual monitoring of safety belt usage is time consuming and prone to errors. In this paper, we propose an improved high-altitude safety belt detection algorithm based on the YOLOv8 model to address these challenges. Our paper introduces several improvements to enhance its performance in detecting safety belts. First, to enhance the feature extraction capability, we introduce a BiFormer attention mechanism. Moreover, we used a lightweight upsampling operator instead of the original upsampling layer to better preserve and recover detailed information without adding an excessive computational burden. Meanwhile, Slim-neck was introduced into the neck layer. Additionally, extra auxiliary training heads were incorporated into the head layer to enhance the detection capability. Lastly, to optimize the prediction of bounding box position and size, we replaced the original loss function with MPDIOU. We evaluated our algorithm using a dataset collected from high-altitude work scenarios and demonstrated its effectiveness in detecting safety belts with high accuracy. Compared to the original YOLOv8 model, the improved model achieves P (precision), R (recall), and mAP (mean average precision) values of 98%, 91.4%, and 97.3%, respectively. These values represent an improvement of 5.1%, 0.5%, and 1.2%, respectively, compared to the original model. The proposed algorithm has the potential to improve workplace safety and reduce the risk of accidents in high-altitude work environments.

Presence of Additional Safety Belt Enforcement Increases Safety Belt Use by Drivers

The use of a safety belt is universally recognized as a primary means of reducing injuries and fatalities for motor vehicle occupants. There are several factors that contribute to safety belt utilization, including traffic enforcement, demographics, vehicle type, day of the week, and geographical location. These factors have been explored and found significant in relation to safety belt usage. Apart from these factors, the presence of additional traffic enforcement is generally believed to produce higher rates of safety belt use. However, the impacts provided by the presence/no-presence of additional traffic enforcement have been merely quantified on a disaggregated scale, broadly across an entire state while controlling for other influential factors. Thus, this paper presents an analysis that quantifies the impacts provided by the presence of additional safety belt enforcement on driver safety belt usage. Direct safety belt use observational surveys and traffic enforcement data were used for the analysis. Owing to the nature of the data, a binary logistic regression analysis was performed on the dataset from the state of Michigan. The results showed that for every location where additional traffic enforcement was present, safety belt usage increased by 6.4% per county compared with areas where no additional traffic enforcement was present. Finally, the results not only quantified the impact of traffic enforcement on safety belt use, but could help transportation safety agencies make more informed decisions about where additional safety belt enforcement may be needed to improve rates of safety belt use.

Persepsi antara Risiko Keselamatan Berkendaraan dengan Perilaku Pemakaian Safety Belt pada Driver Truk

Deaths and injuries from traffic accidents have become health problems for people throughout the world including Indonesia. The saddest data from the victims who died due to traffic accidents found that 10,428 people were killed in 2017 because the drivers did not use seat belts. This research aims to see the relationship between the perception of safety risk i.e. the ability, knowledge and environmental factors with the behavior of the use of safety belts in truck drivers in mining companies. This research is a comparative causal research i.e. research that states the relationship of one variable causes other variables. What is affected is the dependent variable, namely the use of safety belt behavior and the influencing variable is the independent variable, namely the perception of the risk of driving safety. Participants are 25 mining company truck drivers. The data obtained is then processed and analyzed using the SPSS version 16. Based on the results of data processing and analysis, it is found that the ability, knowledge and work environment factors have an influence on the safety belt usage behavior.

Lives saved by laws and regulations that resulted from the Bloomberg road safety program

ObjectiveTo estimate lives saved during 2008–2023 by traffic safety laws passed in six developing countries while participating in the Bloomberg Road Safety Program (BRSP). MethodsBRSP-funded local staff identified relevant laws and described enforcement to the study team. We analyzed road crash death estimates for 2004–2013 from the Global Burden of Disease and projected estimates absent intervention forward to 2023. We amalgamated developing country and US literature to estimate crash death reductions by country resulting from laws governing drink driving, motorcycle helmets, safety belt use, and traffic fines. ResultsBRSP helped win approval of traffic safety laws in Brazil, China, Kenya, Mexico, Turkey, and Vietnam. In 2008–2013, those laws saved an estimated 19,000 lives. Many laws only took effect in 2014. The laws will save an estimated 90,000 lives in 2014–2023. Of the 109,000 lives saved, drink driving laws will account for 84%, increased motorcyclist protection for 13%, increased fines and penalty points for 2%, and safety belt usage mandates for 1%. Drink driving reductions in China will account for 56% of the savings and reduced drink driving and motorcycling deaths in Vietnam for 35%. The savings in China will result from a narrow intervention with just 4% estimated effectiveness against drink driving deaths. As a percentage of deaths anticipated without BRSP effort, the largest reductions will be 11% in Vietnam and 5% in Kenya. ConclusionsViewed as a public health measure, improving traffic safety provided large health gains in developing nations.

Compliance With Traffic Laws by Traffic Police Officers, Non-Traffic Police Officers, and Civilian Drivers

Objective: The policy of a public organization, such as police, may shape the norms and the behavior of the citizens. In line with this, police officers are expected by the public to comply with traffic laws and serve as an example for the citizenry. This study used on-site observations of civilian and police driver, comparing police officers' compliance with traffic laws to that of civilians. Methods: We compared driver compliance with traffic laws for drivers in 3 groups of vehicles: traffic police cars, non-traffic police cars, and civilian cars. Four hundred sixty-six vehicles were observed and compared by vehicle type and whether a uniform was worn by the driver. We observed safety belt usage, signaling before turning, cellular phone usage, and giving way to traffic (measured by merging time). Results: We found evidence that generally drivers in police cars use seat belts while driving more that drivers in civilian cars do. In particular, more traffic police car drivers used seat belts than non-traffic police car drivers do. In addition, drivers in civilian cars and non-traffic police cars waited longer periods of time before merging right into traffic compared to traffic police car drivers. Conclusions: Our findings supported the notion that on-duty police officers, and traffic police officers in particular, adhere more closely to traffic laws compared to civilian drivers. As the general public compliance with traffic laws is affected by the police perceived legitimacy, the publication of these results can both boost public cooperation with the police and encourage police officers to continue providing positive role models to the public.

Safety belt and mobile phone usage in vehicles in Barcelona (Spain)

ObjectivesTo describe the prevalence and correlates of safety belt and mobile phone usage in vehicles in the city of Barcelona (Spain). MethodsWe performed a study using direct observation with a cross-sectional design. We selected 2,442 private cars, commercial vehicles, and taxis from all districts of Barcelona. ResultsThe prevalence of people not wearing safety belt was 10.5% among drivers, 4.6% among front seat passengers, and 32.2% among some of the rear passengers. It was higher among the passengers than among the drivers, regardless of the type of the vehicle. The prevalence of mobile phone usage while driving during a moment of the trip was 3.8%. ConclusionOur study shows noticeably high prevalence of people not wearing safety belt in the rear seats. Moreover, four out of one hundred drivers still use the mobile phone while driving during a moment of the trip.

Benchmarking road safety of U.S. states: A DEA-based Malmquist productivity index approach

In this study, a DEA based Malmquist index model was developed to assess the relative efficiency and productivity of U.S. states in decreasing the number of road fatalities. Even though the national trend in fatal crashes has reached to the lowest level since 1949 (Traffic Safety Annual Assessment Highlights, 2010), a state-by-state analysis and comparison has not been studied considering other characteristics of the holistic national road safety assessment problem in any work in the literature or organizational reports. In this study, a DEA based Malmquist index model was developed to assess the relative efficiency and productivity of 50 U.S. states in reducing the number of fatal crashes. The single output, fatal crashes, and five inputs were aggregated into single road safety score and utilized in the DEA-based Malmquist index mathematical model. The period of 2002–2008 was considered due to data availability for the inputs and the output considered. According to the results, there is a slight negative productivity (an average of −0.2 percent productivity) observed in the U.S. on minimizing the number of fatal crashes along with an average of 2.1 percent efficiency decline and 1.8 percent technological improvement. The productivity in reducing the fatal crashes can only be attributed to the technological growth since there is a negative efficiency growth is occurred. It can be concluded that even though there is a declining trend observed in the fatality rates, the efficiency of states in utilizing societal and economical resources towards the goal of zero fatality is not still efficient. More effective policy making towards increasing safety belt usage and better utilization of safety expenditures to improve road condition are derived as the key areas to focus on for state highway safety agencies from the scope of current research.

Metrics for local community planning and evaluation: the case for observational measurement of high risk rural sub-populations in occupant safety.

Introduction:The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance of non-specific safety belt use data for interventions to rural teens and to pilot a data collection project to provide more specific data to traffic safety stakeholders and educators in rural areas.Methods:Twelve high schools in Southeast Georgia were used for observed safety belt data collection over a 16 month period. Observational surveys were conducted at the entrance to student parking lots of the studied schools in the morning or afternoon. Observers were trained and survey methods were standardized to maintain comparability between results.Results:Observational surveys revealed a safety belt usage rate of 38.6% among high schools teens at the studied high schools. Safety belt usage rates ranged from 9.5% to 66.9%. Observed safety belt use for female vehicle occupants was 48.4% compared to 35.6% for males.Conclusion:The observational survey results from this study support research showing that rural teens have lower safety belt usage rates than adults or urban teens. Despite efforts to target rural areas, programs must specifically target sub populations, especially rural male teens, in order to hold any traction. Because of the wide gap between measured safety belt use in rural Georgia (79.9%) and the studied rural high schools (38.6%), local program planners must assess actual safety belt usage in their high risk rural teen population in order to use accurate metrics for intervention and education efforts.

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.

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.

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.

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 impact of a standard enforcement safety belt law on fatalities and hospital charges in Ohio

Introduction The purpose of this study was to analyze linked crash and hospital data to determine the effect that enactment of a standard enforcement safety belt law in Ohio would have on hospital charges and direct medical costs due to motor-vehicle crashes, focusing on the impact to the state's Medicaid system. Method The linkage and analysis was conducted as part of the Ohio Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) program. Current safety belt usage in Ohio stands at 82% with its secondary enforcement safety belt law. Results Assuming an increase in usage to 92% through standard enforcement, over $15.3 million in medical costs to Medicaid for injuries that occur in a single year could be prevented over a 10-year period. Cumulative savings could reach more than $91.2 million during the 10-year period. In addition, 161 fatalities could have been prevented in one year had all unbelted occupants who sustained a fatal injury instead chosen to wear their safety belt. Summary and Impact on Industry Clearly, substantial progress can be made in reducing the number of deaths and injuries, as well as medical costs associated with motor-vehicle crashes, by strengthening safety belt laws and increasing safety belt usage in Ohio.

Homicide Rate as a Predictor of Traffic Fatality Rate

Background: In the United States, traffic fatality rates per distance driven vary greatly from state to state, with the maximum rate being 2.9 times the minimum rate. This study was designed to examine factors associated with this variability. Method: A multiple regression was performed on the 2006 state data. The dependent variable was the fatality rate per distance driven. There were 10 independent variables. Results: The analysis identified seven statistically significant factors: homicide rate per capita (used in the analysis as a proxy for aggression), physicians per capita, safety-belt usage rate, proportion of male drivers, proportion of drivers over 64 years of age, income per capita, and deaths caused by alcohol-related liver failures per capita (a proxy for the extent of intoxicated driving). These seven factors accounted for 71 percent of the variance in the traffic fatality rates. The strongest predictor of the traffic fatality rate was the homicide rate. Conclusion: This finding suggests that social aspects of human interaction may play an important role in traffic safety.

Safety belt usage among car drivers and front-seat passengers in one city

Safety belt usage among car drivers and front-seat passengers in one city

Underreporting in traffic accident data, bias in parameters and the structure of injury severity models

Injury severities in traffic accidents are usually recorded on ordinal scales, and statistical models have been applied to investigate the effects of driver factors, vehicle characteristics, road geometrics and environmental conditions on injury severity. The unknown parameters in the models are in general estimated assuming random sampling from the population. Traffic accident data however suffer from underreporting effects, especially for lower injury severities. As a result, traffic accident data can be regarded as outcome-based samples with unknown population shares of the injury severities. An outcome-based sample is overrepresented by accidents of higher severities. As a result, outcome-based samples result in biased parameters which skew our inferences on the effect of key safety variables such as safety belt usage. The pseudo-likelihood function for the case with unknown population shares, which is the same as the conditional maximum likelihood for the case with known population shares, is applied in this study to examine the effects of severity underreporting on the parameter estimates. Sequential binary probit models and ordered-response probit models of injury severity are developed and compared in this study. Sequential binary probit models assume that the factors determining the severity change according to the level of the severity itself, while ordered-response probit models assume that the same factors correlate across all levels of severity. Estimation results suggest that the sequential binary probit models outperform the ordered-response probit models, and that the coefficient estimates for lap and shoulder belt use are biased if underreporting is not considered. Mean parameter bias due to underreporting can be significant. The findings show that underreporting on the outcome dimension may induce bias in inferences on a variety of factors. In particular, if underreporting is not accounted for, the marginal impacts of a variety of factors appear to be overestimated. Fixed objects and environmental conditions are overestimated in their impact on injury severity, as is the effect of separate lap and shoulder belt use. Combined lap and shoulder belt usage appears to be unaffected. The parameter bias is most pronounced when underreporting of possible injury accidents in addition to property damage only accidents is taken into account.

Impact of Primary Safety Belt Laws on Alcohol-Related Front-Seat Occupant Fatalities: Five Case Studies

Objective. Impaired drivers and other high-risk road users are less likely to use their safety belts, thus increasing the risk of fatal injury in the event of a crash. Although safety belt laws have been shown to increase wearing rates for daytime non-crash-involved drivers and their front-seat passengers, little evidence is available on the effect these laws have on belt usage by crash-involved drinking drivers and their passengers. Methods. This study evaluated the influence of primary safety belt law upgrades from secondary laws on front-seat occupants of passenger cars driven by drinking drivers in fatal crashes in five states: California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Washington. The outcome measures used to evaluate these law upgrades were (1) the change in safety belt usage rates of front-seat occupants in passenger cars driven by drinking drivers in fatal crashes and (2) the change in alcohol-related front-seat occupant fatalities in passenger cars driven by drinking drivers. Results. Four of the five states demonstrated increases in safety belt use by front-seat occupants of passenger cars of drinking drivers in fatal crashes following the upgrade to primary safety belt laws. Three states (California, Michigan, and Washington) experienced significant reductions in the number of front-seat occupant fatalities in vehicles driven by drinking drivers. Conclusions. The adoption of primary law upgrades was associated with significant increases in safety belt use (four of five states) and significant reductions in fatalities among high-risk occupants (i.e., front-seat occupants involved in fatal crashes in vehicles driven by drinking drivers) in three of the five states studied.

The effect of seatbelt legislation on hospital admissions with road traffic injuries in an oil-rich, fast-developing country

The objective of the study was to examine the effect of seat-belt legislation on hospital admissions with road traffic injuries and was designed as a retrospective descriptive study. All motor vehicle crashes recorded during the period 2001 – 2004 were extracted from the Emergency Medical Service Department. Details of the crashes, injuries and safety devices used were studied. The present study revealed that safety belt usage rates have increased from 8% in 2001 to 67% in 2004 among patients admitted to hospital with injury after road traffic crashes. The admission rate of patients with road traffic injuries per 100 000 population reduced by 17.7%. The enforcement of the seat-belt legislation played a vital role in reduction of hospital admissions due to road traffic crashes.

Factors Influencing Seat Belt Usage Rate for Blacks and Hispanics

Seat belt usage among African Americans and Hispanics has been documented to be significantly lower than that of other population groups. In 1996, an NHTSA study showed low seat belt usage rates among the general population and among African Americans especially. Studies have continued to be performed to measure seat belt usage among African Americans and Hispanics. The Division of Highway Traffic Safety of New Jersey commissioned a study to determine seat belt usage rates for blacks and Hispanics in urban areas in New Jersey and to identify differences in these rates and factors that affect the usage rates. Direct observation was used to obtain safety belt usage for drivers in passenger motor vehicles. Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic data were also obtained through a questionnaire given to drivers of noncommercial motor vehicles. The study found no significant difference between the usage rates of Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and whites. A logistic regression model was also developed to estimate the probability of seat belt use, which was regarded as the dependent variable, with independent variables including gender, vehicle type, racial–ethnic group, highest educational level achieved, marital status, age, whether the driver had children, and total household income. The variables identified as significant included gender, marital status, and age. Race was not found to be a significant factor in estimating the probability of seat belt usage.

Safety Belt Use by Law Enforcement Officers on Reality Television: A Missed Opportunity for Injury Prevention?

Although safety belt usage rates are increasing nationwide, motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) remain a leading cause of death for young people and are emerging as a leading cause for police officers specifically. A content analysis was performed on the television show, COPS, to determine on-air safety belt usage rates. A sample of 63 unique episodes of the reality-based television series, COPS, was viewed during a 4-month period (September 1, 2005 to January 1, 2006). Episodes had original airing dates ranging from 1990 to 2004. Safety belt usage status was determined per police officer per driving scene (N = 250). A driving scene represented a continuous trip (start to finish) with a total on-camera time exceeding 5 seconds. Scenes with indeterminate safety belt status were excluded. High-speed driving, officer gender, and officer race were also recorded. Of the 203 scenes included, 77 (38%) demonstrated safety belt usage. High-speed driving scenes had higher safety belt usage rates compared with low-speed (48% versus 29%, p = 0.005). More contemporary episodes (1999 to 2004) had higher safety belt usage rates as well (51% versus 28%, p = 0.001). Officer gender and race revealed no significant differences in safety belt usage rates (p = 0.930 and p = 0.900, respectively). In this popular, reality-based television series, safety belt usage by police officers is extremely low. These findings suggest the need to increase safety belt usage by police officers, especially those filmed for television.