Transportation, Traffic Safety and Health — Man and Machine: Second International Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 1996

196 Pages·2000·6.67 MB·English

by  Hans von Holst

"'VOL"'VO
This book was sponsored by VOLVO AB and
the Swedish Foundation of Neurotrauma
Springer
Berlin
Heidelberg
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Barcelona
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o
Hans von Holst · Ake Nygren
Ake E. Andersson (Eds.)
Transportation, Traffic Safety
and Health - Man and Machine
Second International Conference,
Brussels, Belgium, 1996
With 27 Figures
and 23 Tables
Karolinska Institute
Royal Institute of Technology
WHO Collaborating Center for Neurotrauma
Institute for Futures Studies
Springer
Volvo
Prof. Hans von Holst, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics,
10044 Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Ake Nygren, Karolinska Institute, Department of Injury Prevention, Hantverkargatan
5, 11296 Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Ake E. Andersson, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Infrastructure,
10044 Stockholm, Sweden
ISBN 3-540-67443-8 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
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Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Man and machine: Brussels, Belgium, 1996; with 23 tables I Karolinska Institute ... Hans von Holst ... (ed.). - Berlin;
Heidelberg; New York; Barcelona; Hong Kong; London; Milan; Paris; Singapore; Tokyo: Springer, 2000
(Transportation, traffic safety and health; 2)
ISBN 3-540-67443-8
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CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................................... 5
A Traffic Safety Dream Team - The Demand for Integration of Knowledge
Neuroscietlce .....................................................9
Hans von Holst, Royal Institute of Technology, WHO Collaborating Center, Sweden
Insurance Records; An Important Source in Road Traffic
Safety Research. ...•.•••.••......................•..............•1 9
Ake Nygren, Karolinska Institute, WHO Collaborating Center, Sweden
How to Reach the Optimal Traffic Safety Environment:
The American Perspective .......................................... 29
Ricardo Martinez, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA
Road Safety and Complexity in Less Motorised Countries:
The Way Ahead. .................................................4 9
Dinesh Mohan, Indian Institute of Technology, India
Traffic Safety in Planning - A Multidimensional Model
for the Zero Vision ................................................6 1
Claes Tingvall et aI, Swedish National Road Administration, Chalmers University of Technology
Traffic Safety and the Demographic Transition . ................••....•.•. 71
TR Lakshmanan, US Department of Transportation, USA
Freight Traffic and Safety - A European Perspective. .................•.... 81
Kenneth Button, George Mason University, USA
Sustainability and Environmental Adjusted Transport Systems . ............. 97
Borje Johansson, Jonkoping International Business School, Sweden
Safety and Collective Behaviour on Congested Traffic Networks. ...........•1 13
David F Betten, The Temaplan Group, Australia
Insurance Experiences in Traffic Safety. .......•.....•.............•.• 129
Jon Schubert, Saskatchewan Government Insurance, Canada
3
Road Accident Prevention Research Unit, Accident
Analysis and Prevmtion . ......................................... 137
G. Anthony Ryan, The University of Western Australia
Building a Safe Community• .........•....•..•..........••..•.•••••1 49
Barbara Barlow, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA
Psychosocial Factors in Recovery From Traffic Injuries ••••....•.........•.1 55
Linda Carroll, University of Saskatchewan, Royal University Hospital, Canada
Reducing Highway Crash Costs: The Cost-Outcome Analyses• •......•.••••• 171
Ted R. Miller, National Public Services Research Institute, USA
David I Levy, University of Baltimore, USA
Contributors to this Volume . ..•...•.••.....•.•..••.••............••1 99
4
INTRODUCTION
Hans von Holst
Royal Institute of Technology, WHO Collaborating Center, Sweden
Ake Nygren
Karolinska Institute, WHO Collaborating Center, Sweden
Ake E. Andersson
Institute for Futures Studies, Sweden
I
n a recent study initiated by Harvard University, World Bank and
World Health Organization it was concluded that road injuries will
be ranked from number 9 today to number 3 within the next two to
three decades if authorities all over the world do not pay more attention to this
significant problem. Injuries in traffic do not only concern the patient himself but
also the relatives from an emotional point of view and the society from a socio
economic point.
Both emerging markets and industrial countries have significant experi
ence of the events following a traffic accident. Much effort has been directed
towards transportation of the victim from the scene of the accident to intensive
care unit in the hospital. Simultaneously, the awareness of our knowledge about
how these injuries should be prevented is striking.
The focus of this second book of transportation, traffic safety and health
is to further present some of the latest aspects in the area of mobility and its rela
tion to planning of an optimal traffic safety with respect to our present knowl
edge in the field. The volume contains a collection of contributions presented of
scientists, clinicians and administrators at The Second International Conference
on Transportation, Traffic Safety and Health, held in Brussels, Belgium, 1996.
Hans von Holst discusses the demand for integration of knowledge in
neuroscience by showing that the most devastating consequences from traffic
injury are disturbance of the central nervous system. He presents a scientific cas
cade of prevention including the evolution of the scientific field neuronics, which
is based on neurotrauma and neuromechanics. Moreover, he introduces a traffic
safety dream team consisting of members coming from technology, medicine
and society thereby integrating the knowledge of today in an effort to reduce
H. Holst et al. (eds.), Transportation, Traffic Safety and Health — Man and Machine
© Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg 2000 5
mortality, morbidity, disability and handicap.
Ake Nygren gives a survey of different ways of studying traffic safety by
using insurance, hospital and police data. In order to achieve traffic safety prior
ity shall be given to elucidating the most effective measures to minimize the risk
for unacceptable outcome of an accident. In this respect the study of insurance
material may have many applications. He also argues that insurance material
can be used for the evaluation of various interventions.
Ricardo Martinez gives an information of the American perspective how
to reach the optimal traffic safety environment. He gives statistics of significant
value. He argues that many of the efforts in the United States have been direct
ed toward reducing fatalities. However, this focus needs to shift to prevention of
all injuries including non-fatal injuries due to the fact that these lowest severity
injuries present a lower burden to the individual, but because of their sheer vol
ume each year they continue to exact an enormous economic toll on society over
all. He also stresses on the initiative with changing environment by introducing
safe communities program.
Dinesh Mohan focuses on the complexity of safety policies in less devel
oped and motorized countries. In these countries there is a much greater variety
of quality of vehicles on the roads with the corresponding wide variation in their
operating speeds. The variances in quality and speed of vehicles is furthermore
combined with unavailability of capital for improving the quality of the roads.
Transfer of technology from the economically developed countries to the motor
ized countries is therefore neither feasible nor effective. Long-term strategies
have to be focused both on vehicles and roads as well as measures oriented to
better traffic separation and speed controls.
Claes Tingvall, Anders Lie and Roland Johansson propose a multi
dimensional model for safer road transport related to the zero-vision strategy of
traffic safety, adopted by the Swedish Government. Their model is based on the
idea that human tolerance to mechanical force is the main limiting parameter
influencing both the design of cars, infrastructure, speed limits and other mea
sures ensuring safe driving. Based on their analysis they propose a strategy for a
safe road transport system, including all components and users of the system.
TR Lakshmanan provides a review of the trends in transportation safety
in the United States. On the whole, there has been a significant reduction on
fatality rates in the United States with the exception of older age groups.
Lakshmanan shows that the ageing of the US population will pose an increas
ingly important issue of safety policies in countries with ageing populations.
Contributing to the general problem of elderly and the traffic is their exposure to
different types of health problems in the associated higher use of medications,
6
Introduction
affecting responsiveness and attention during driving.
Kenneth Button provides an analysis of traffic safety in Europe, focusing
on the consequences of the dramatic increase of freight traffic and the associated
increases of traffic accidents. Freight modal shifts tend to give an increasing pri
ority for truck transport, increasing traffic in most parts of Europe. However, he
argues that there is a multitude of policy tools available, which could improve
traffic safety. These include reduction of freight movements by relocation of
industries, redesigning individual vehicles, separation of freight transport from
other transport users, switching traffic from road to rail, safer infrastructure
designs and better training.
Borje Johansson shows that truck transport as well as passenger trans
port by automobiles are growing in relative importance. Road traffic as a whole
is thus expected to grow in relative importance in the advanced countries of
Europe also in the next decades. Estimates by the Europan Union have shown
that increasing traffic congestion and accidents are the two major environmental
consequences of the growth of traffic. Johansson proposes a more intensive use
of road user charges in order to create better incentives to reduce accidents and
other external effects, associatd with the increasing density of European road
traffic.
David Batten introduces an analysis in which traffic accidents are seen as
the outcome of complex, aggregate social phenomena, especially in situations of
unpredictable patterns of congestion. The lack of predictability of the traffic sys
tem is a consequence of the dynamics of interaction, occurring on any congested
network. He argues that chaotic behavior in one part of the network might be
caused by behavior in another, often distant, section of the network. Basing traf
fic safety measures on an assumption that drivers always respond in rational
ways on local information can be grossly at variance with reality. One policy
suggested in the paper is to consistently reduce flows below what is deemed to
be technically feasible.
Jon Schubert shows that insurers have an important role in traffic safety.
They need to participate in order to provide better services for the policyholders
at a reduced cost. Injury prevention at the post-crash phase requires ongoing
refinement of the compensation system, a greater focus on rehabilitation and sci
entifically based research to measure outcomes. All of these actions help to
reduce the social and economic impact of automobile crashes and help injured
people to recover more quickly.
Anthony Ryan stresses on the close relationship between the investiga
tion of crashes, the recording and the analyses of crash data and development
and evaluation of effective countermeasures. He argues for the importance that
7
the result of analyses is communicated to those who are involved in putting
countermeasures and preventive programs into practice.
Barbara Barlow gives an information about the Harlem Hospital injury
prevention program established to reduce injuries by providing safe play areas
and safe supervised activities for community children in addition to injury pre
vention education. The program has demonstrated that successful injury pre
vention programs can be developed in the inner city and that the safe commu
nity model is successfuL
Linda Carroll highlights the psychosocial factors in recover from traffic
injury. She reviews physical and psychological injuries resulting from motor
vehicle accidents. The biomedical and biopsychosocial models of pain are dis
cussed along with the theory of how the chronic pain syndrome develops.
Factors relating to recover from injury are outlined and some of the prognostic
factors in recover from whiplash identified in the literature are reviewed.
Ted Miller shows that cost outcome analyses is often used to justify a
particular program to government decision makers or more recently to manage
care providers. In developing a comprehensive safety approach, it is critical to
understand how the interventions interact. The inclusion of a common perspec
tive, such as the societal perspective, and common cost categories in all analyses
is an essential facilitator of comparisons between interventions.
The contributions to this book show the importance of a multidiscipli
nary approach in an effort to improve various prevention programs aiming at
reducing mortality, morbidity, disability and handicap in the traffic.
Following the Brussels conference a third annual conference was orga
nized in Washington, USA, in December 1997. The focus of that conference was
on the role of preventive strategies.
The aim is to successively organize conferences during the coming
decade. These conferences are intended to be held yearly with a shifting focus.
Realizing that the problems of traffic safety is complex, all these conferences are
based on multi-disciplinarity of the contributions and participation in the con
ferences by scientists and medical practitioners as well as private and public pol
icy makers. The conferences will be held in different areas of the world in order
to encourage a continued wold wide participation and to ensure that research
findings from different countries around the world are taken into consideration
in the formation of transportation and traffic policy making.
8