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Work (Reading, Mass.) 2018It is well known that electrical accidents can cause physical injury. Less well known is that long-term consequences may include emotional and cognitive problems.
BACKGROUND
It is well known that electrical accidents can cause physical injury. Less well known is that long-term consequences may include emotional and cognitive problems.
OBJECTIVE
To explore electricians' experiences and perceptions of work-related electrical accidents, with focus on psychological short- and long-term consequences, including how contacts with health care services and the workplace were perceived.
METHODS
Semi-structured interviews with 23 Swedish male electricians, aged 25- 68, who had experienced at least one electrical accident and reported residual sensory, musculoskeletal, cognitive or emotional symptoms. Data was analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
Immediate emotional reactions included surprise, confusion, fear, anxiety, and anger; also long-term consequences were seen. Experiencing a no-let-go situation was particularly stressful. The cause of the accident, and questions about guilt and blame were central in the aftermath. Lack of knowledge and routine among health care professionals concerning electrical injury was reported, as well as lack of medical and psychological follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS
For some informants, the accident had been a life-changing event, while for others it was an event of little importance. Adequate handling at the workplace, and from health care personnel, including follow-up, could facilitate rehabilitation and return to work.
Topics: Accidents; Adult; Aged; Electric Injuries; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Life Change Events; Male; Middle Aged; Perception; Qualitative Research; Sweden
PubMed: 30124461
DOI: 10.3233/WOR-182765 -
Injury Feb 2022Background Road Safety has become a worldwide concern due to the alarming repercussions road accidents may bear. This study examined the relationship between different...
Background Road Safety has become a worldwide concern due to the alarming repercussions road accidents may bear. This study examined the relationship between different geometric design elements and the accident rates on Rashid Bin Saeed Street, Arabian Gulf Street, and Sultan Bin Zayed Street in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Methods The geometric design was collected from the satellite images of google earth in compliance with the standard geometric design manual of Abu Dhabi roads. The recorded geometric data consisted of the number of lanes, lane widths, median length, and width. The traffic volume data was provided by the Integrated Transport Center of Abu Dhabi, which was then converted into Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) for analytical purposes. For the studied roads, AADT ranges ranged between 26,509 and 121,890 vehicles per day. The crash data related to the period of 2012-2019 was collected from the online open-access data provided by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior. The data provided had considered variables related to driver gender, age and speed, travel direction, and time of the day amongst other factors. A comprehensive statistical analysis was conducted to study the impact of geometric design elements on road safety through a stable distribution. Stable distributions are generally characterized by four parameters and expressed as X∼S(α,β,σ,μ). The statistical model included several graphical representations such as accident frequency at two levels of severity, casualty and non-casualty accidents for different road segments, traffic volumes, day of the week, age of the injured person, and the geometric design parameters on the three roads. Variance-based methods of sensitivity analysis are also used that are a class of probabilistic approaches that quantify the input and output uncertainties as probability distributions and decompose the output variance into parts attributable to input variables and combinations of variables. The sensitivity of the output to an input variable is therefore measured by the amount of variance in the output caused by that input. Findings The results showed that the accident profiles differ with varying segments on each road, revealing some segments to be of higher accident rates than others. Also, a higher accident frequency was shown with young adult drivers, and a high majority of accidents had occurred on weekends. Regarding the road's geometric design, which is the focus of this study, a sensitivity analysis was made to determine the most influential geometric design element on accident frequency. Interpretation The number of lanes had the highest sensitivity index followed by the median width, and then came the lane width. Thus, modifying the number of lanes on a highway is anticipated to have the highest impact on accident frequency and road safety than any other geometric parameter.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Environment Design; Humans; Models, Statistical; Safety; United Arab Emirates; Young Adult
PubMed: 34654552
DOI: 10.1016/j.injury.2021.09.042 -
Ulusal Travma Ve Acil Cerrahi Dergisi =... Oct 2023The percentage of e-scooter use quickly escalated in our community due to its convenience, low cost, and eases of use. The number of accidents causing high-energy...
BACKGROUND
The percentage of e-scooter use quickly escalated in our community due to its convenience, low cost, and eases of use. The number of accidents causing high-energy traumas has also increased. This study aims to describe the demographic char-acteristics and fracture patterns of patients admitted to the emergency department following an e-scooter accident and to identify common, correctable factors that increased the likelihood of accidents.
METHODS
Between January 2022 and August 2022, 43 patients (20 females and 23 males) who were admitted to the emergency department after an e-scooter accident and developed extremity fractures were included. The patients were divided into 2 groups those treated surgically and conservatively. Parameters such as the time of the accident, education level of the user, alcohol use, e-scooter malfunction, and compliance with traffic rules were evaluated.
RESULTS
Accidents that led to treatment by surgery mostly occurred between 11 pm and 7 am. Surgically treated patients were mostly high school graduates. Alcohol use and recreational scooter use rates were statistically higher in the operated patients when compared to patients who were treated conservatively. The number of patients who reported a malfunction in the e-scooter was significantly lower in the operated group than in the conservative group. The rates of accidents due to non-compliance with traffic laws, driving at full speed of the e-scooter, use on the driveway, and presence of wet ground at the time of the accident were higher in the surgically treated patient group. Surgically treated patients also had a higher rate of being 1st time e-scooter users.
CONCLUSION
Although governments have introduced many regulations regarding e-scooter use, the current situation seems insufficient in solving the problem. E-scooter users should be further educated about the associated risks. Authorities should tighten their supervision of scooter rental companies and drivers. Nighttime usage conditions should be reviewed, and the use of alcohol should be controlled. The use of helmets should be mandatory. If such regulations are tightened, accident rates can be reduced or high-energy impacts from existing accidents can be avoided. The results suggest that experienced, slow, non-alcoholic, and rule-abiding drivers require less operative treatment. This article will hopefully raise awareness and improve e-scooter regulations.
Topics: Male; Female; Humans; Accidents, Traffic; Dreams; Accidents; Fractures, Bone; Hospitalization; Emergency Service, Hospital; Retrospective Studies; Head Protective Devices
PubMed: 37791439
DOI: 10.14744/tjtes.2023.35848 -
Journal of Safety Research Dec 2021Scholarly research on road accidents over the past 50 years has generated substantial literature. We propose a robust search strategy to retrieve and analyze this... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Scholarly research on road accidents over the past 50 years has generated substantial literature. We propose a robust search strategy to retrieve and analyze this literature.
METHOD
Analyses was focused on estimating the size of this literature and examining its intellectual anatomy and temporal trends using bibliometric indicators of its articles.
RESULTS
The size of the literature is estimated to have exceeded N = 25,000 items as of 2020. At the highest level of aggregation, patterns of term co-occurrence in road accident articles point to the presence of six major divisions: (i) law, legislation & road trauma statistics; (ii) vehicular safety technology; (iii) statistical modelling; (iv) driving simulator experiments of driving behavior; (v) driver style and personality (social psychology); and (vi) vehicle crashworthiness and occupant protection division. Analyses identify the emergence of various research clusters and their progress over time along with their respective influential entities. For example, driver injury severity " and crash frequency show distinct characteristics of trending topics, with research activities in those areas notably intensified since 2015 Also, two developing clusters labelled autonomous vehicle and automated vehicle show distinct signs of becoming emerging streams of road accident literature.
CONCLUSIONS
By objectively documenting temporal patterns in the development of the field, these analyses could offer new levels of insight into the intellectual composition of this field, its future directions, and knowledge gaps. Practical Applications: The proposed search strategy can be modified to generate specific subsets of this literature and assist future conventional reviews. The findings of temporal analyses could also be instrumental in informing and enriching literature review sections of original research articles. Analyses of authorships can facilitate collaborations, particularly across various divisions of accident research field.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Automobile Driving; Humans; Knowledge; Models, Statistical; Safety
PubMed: 34848001
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2021.09.002 -
Pediatric Annals Mar 2018A child dying of heat injury due to being left unattended in a motor vehicle is a needless tragedy. Each year in the United States an average of 38 children mostly... (Review)
Review
A child dying of heat injury due to being left unattended in a motor vehicle is a needless tragedy. Each year in the United States an average of 38 children mostly younger than age 2 years die of vehicular hyperthermia, frequently the result of a parental lapse of attention and not intentional neglect. Serious illness results quickly from exposure to rising heat within the passenger compartment, even on days when the temperature is fairly moderate. Prevention is paramount in addressing this problem and can best be accomplished by a combination of technological means, such as passive warning systems, laws that make leaving a child in a car alone illegal, and public education campaigns. [Pediatr Ann. 2018;47(3):e88-e90.].
Topics: Accident Prevention; Accidents; Child; Child Abuse; Child, Preschool; Fever; Health Promotion; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Motor Vehicles; Risk Factors; United States
PubMed: 29538778
DOI: 10.3928/19382359-20180220-04 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2022Predicting traffic accident duration is necessary for ensuring traffic safety. Several attempts have been made to achieve high prediction accuracy, but researchers have...
Predicting traffic accident duration is necessary for ensuring traffic safety. Several attempts have been made to achieve high prediction accuracy, but researchers have not considered traffic accident text data in much detail. The limited text data of the first report on an incident describes the characteristics of an accident that are initially available. This paper uses text data fusing and ensemble learning algorithms to build a model to predict an accident's duration, and a preprocessing scheme of accident duration text data is established. Next, the random forest (RF) algorithm is applied to select feature variables of text data related to the traffic incident duration. Last, a text feature vector is introduced to models such as decision tree, k nearest neighbor, support vector regression, random forest, Gradient Boosting Decision Tree, and Xtreme Gradient Boosting. Our results show that the improved RF model has good prediction accuracy with RMSE, MAPE and R. From this, the textual factors important to determining the duration of the accident are identified. Further, we investigated that the cumulative importance of 60% is sufficient for traffic accident prediction using text data. These results provide insights into minimizing traffic congestion related to accidents and contribute to the input optimization in text prediction.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Data Mining; Algorithms; Machine Learning
PubMed: 36509866
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25988-4 -
Public Health Mar 2017Helmet use is a major risk factor for road traffic injuries and fatalities. This study sought to determine the state of helmet use in Ha Nam and Ninh Binh provinces in... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
OBJECTIVES
Helmet use is a major risk factor for road traffic injuries and fatalities. This study sought to determine the state of helmet use in Ha Nam and Ninh Binh provinces in Vietnam, and ascertain knowledge, attitudes, and practices of helmet use over time.
STUDY DESIGN
Observational helmet use studies, and roadside knowledge, attitudes, and practice surveys.
METHODS
Data were collected through observational helmet use studies at multiple sites in Ha Nam and Ninh Binh provinces over 14 rounds between June 2011 and December 2014. Six rounds of knowledge, attitude, and practice surveys were administered at gas stations between December 2011 and July 2014. Trend analysis and negative binomial regressions were used to analyze trend data.
RESULTS
Between June 2011 and December 2014, 301,981 helmet-use observations were conducted in Ha Nam and Ninh Binh. Correct helmet use increased significantly (P < 0.01) in Ha Nam from 34.3% to 76.9% (P < 0.01), while use in Ninh Binh increased from 68.9% to 72.2% (P > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Helmet use has improved statistically significantly in Ha Nam but not in Ninh Binh. Ceiling effects may have limited the scope of improvements in Ninh Binh province.
Topics: Accident Prevention; Accidents, Traffic; Alcohol Drinking; Craniocerebral Trauma; Female; Head Protective Devices; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Motorcycles; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Risk-Taking; Sex Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vietnam
PubMed: 28288730
DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2017.01.010 -
Annals of the ICRP Jul 2021Estimates of thyroid doses to the public from radioiodine intake following the accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants are compared. The basis...
Estimates of thyroid doses to the public from radioiodine intake following the accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants are compared. The basis for thyroid dose estimates after the Chernobyl accident was a large set of measurements of I thyroidal content for approximately 400,000 residents in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Due to a lack of direct thyroid measurements after the Fukushima accident (just over 1000 residents were measured), thyroid doses were estimated based on ecological models and are therefore associated with much higher uncertainty than those based on direct thyroid measurements. Thyroid dose estimates for evacuees were up to 50,000 mGy for Chernobyl and up to approximately 100 mGy for Fukushima. This large difference in thyroid dose to the public is mainly due to the different dominant pathways of radioiodine intake: ingestion of fresh, locally produced cows' milk (Chernobyl) and inhalation of contaminated air (Fukushima).
Topics: Animals; Cattle; Chernobyl Nuclear Accident; Female; Fukushima Nuclear Accident; Iodine Radioisotopes; Radiation Dosage; Radiation Protection; Thyroid Neoplasms
PubMed: 34109835
DOI: 10.1177/01466453211006816 -
International Journal of Injury Control... Dec 2020The number of road crashes is significantly growing worldwide. In the transportation sector, accident outcomes are usually the loss of lives and injuries. To avoid... (Review)
Review
The number of road crashes is significantly growing worldwide. In the transportation sector, accident outcomes are usually the loss of lives and injuries. To avoid further damages, a tool entitled geographical information system (GIS) could be helpful. GIS has the most demanding tools used to analyze road accidents and road design that can be noteworthy in traffic accident prevention. The purpose of this review is to propose the superlative approach of GIS applicable to accident analysis in different circumstances. The reviewed statistical results of accidents are performed by GIS but the numerical study is not consummate by GIS. Mainly, four essential GIS techniques are introduced and discussed in this review paper to simulate road accidents and suggest some prolific accident analysis tools for road safety.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Automobile Driving; Geographic Information Systems
PubMed: 32838689
DOI: 10.1080/17457300.2020.1811732 -
Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance Apr 2019In the United States, the proportion of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) fatal accidents remained unchanged despite an overall decreasing accident rate....
In the United States, the proportion of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) fatal accidents remained unchanged despite an overall decreasing accident rate. Previous research showed night HEMS operations influenced fatal outcomes. Pilots with <6 yr of HEMS domain task experience (low-DTE) had a higher likelihood of a night operational accident in conditions associated with adverse weather. This study sought to determine whether a difference existed between day and night fatal accident rates and identify influences contributing to night fatal HEMS accidents. Any risk factors identified will be used for a risk analysis to inform future operational safety of the night visual flight rule (VFR) HEMS transport system. Historical accident data and industry hours were obtained. Both pilot DTE groups (low and high) and mission VFR and instrument flight rule (IFR) capability were identified using data from 32 night VFR operational fatal HEMS accidents. Accidents were stratified by loss of control and controlled flight into terrain, pilot DTE, and flight rule capability. The effectiveness of both DTE groups and both flight rule capabilities were measured using system safety risk analysis techniques. Night fatal accident rates were statistically different from daytime. Low-DTE pilots and the VFR capability combination had the highest likelihood of night operational nonsurvivable accident. Low-DTE pilots and the VFR capability were the least effective mission combination to avoid hazardous conditions at night and maintain spatial orientation, respectively. The analysis identified measures to reduce likelihood of night fatal operational accidents.
Topics: Accidents, Aviation; Aerospace Medicine; Air Ambulances; Humans; Orientation, Spatial; Retrospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Safety Management; Time Factors; United States; Weather
PubMed: 30922428
DOI: 10.3357/AMHP.5180.2019