Road-Crossing Safety in Virtual Reality: A Comparison of Adolescents With and Without ADHD

This study investigated the potential accident-proneness of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a hazardous road-crossing environment. An immersive virtual reality traffic gap-choice task was used to determine whether ADHD adolescents show more unsafe road-crossing behavior than controls. Participants (ages 13 to 17) were identified with (n = 24) or without (n = 24) ADHD according to a standardized protocol (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version and Conners' Scales), with equal number of boys (n = 12) and girls (n = 12) in each group. ADHD adolescents did not take stimulant medication on the day of testing. Participants with ADHD had a lower margin of safety, walked slower, underutilized the available gap in incoming traffic, showed greater variability in road-crossing behavior, and evidenced twice as many collisions as compared to controls. No sex differences were found. Virtual reality may help identify and educate those at higher risk of being involved in dangerous traffic situations.

Symmetric relationship between self and others in aggressive driving across gender and countries

OBJECTIVE

It was hypothesized that the combination of self-reported aggressive behaviors committed by the driver himself/herself ("self" scale) and perceiving himself/herself as an object of other drivers' aggressive acts ("other" scale) increases road accident involvement risk across gender and countries. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate this symmetric relationship between aggressive driving of self and other and its relationship on accident involvement among British, Dutch, Finnish, and Turkish drivers.

METHODS

Survey studies of 3673 drivers were carried out in four countries; that is in Finland, Great Britain, The Netherlands, and Turkey. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women.

RESULTS

Overall, the interaction among aggressive warnings, hostile aggression, and revenge factors indicated that aggressive warnings might have a potential to release anger and escalate aggression both "within drivers" and "between drivers." Symmetric interpersonal aggression between aggressive warnings and hostile aggression and revenge factors of self and others created a serious risk for road accident involvement in every country except among British male and Finnish female drivers.

CONCLUSIONS

The other driver's aggressive behavior is significantly associated with increased accidents, except for Turkish male drivers. It seems that another driver's aggressive behavior can be important in predicting crashes-even more important than aggressive behavior on the part of the driver him- or herself.

Risky driving behavior and road traffic crashes among young Asian Australian drivers: findings from the DRIVE study

OBJECTIVE

To examine differences in risky driving behavior and likelihood of traffic crash according to the country of birth of recently licensed young drivers. The groups examined include those born in Australia, those born in Asia, and those born in other countries.

DESIGN AND SETTING

The DRIVE study is a prospective cohort study of drivers aged 17-24 years holding their first-year provisional driver license in New South Wales, Australia. Information obtained from 20,822 participants who completed a baseline questionnaire was linked to police-reported traffic crashes.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Self-reported risky driving behaviors and police-reported traffic crashes in young drivers.

RESULTS

Young drivers who were born in Asian countries were less likely to report engaging in risky driving behaviors than their Australian-born counterparts. The proportion of participants reporting a high level of risky driving was 31.5 percent (95% confidence intervale [CI], 30.8-32.1) among Australian-born drivers compared to 25.6 percent (95% CI, 23.1-28.2) among Asian-born drivers and 30.4 percent (95% CI, 28.4-32.5) among those born in other regions. Asian-born participants had half the risk of a crash as a driver than their Australian-born counterparts (relative risk [RR] 0.55; 95% CI, 0.41-0.75) after adjusting for a number of demographic factors and driving and risk-taking behaviors. The comparative risk was even lower among those aged 17 years (RR 0.29; 95% CI, 0.29-0.75). Risk estimates for people born in other regions did not differ to those for Australian-born respondents.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights the lower level of risky driving and significantly reduced crash risk for Australian drivers born in Asian countries relative to those born locally. Further research is needed to examine factors underlying this reduced risk and the impact of the length of residence in the host country.

Cannabis and psychiatric disorders

There are connection between use of cannabis and many psychiatric disturbances in adolescents, especially "cannabis psychosis", depression, panic attacks and suicide. Negative effects could occur either as a result of a specific pharmacological effect of cannabis, or as the result of stressful experiences during the intoxication of cannabis in young people. Potentially is very dangerous high frequency suicidal ideation among cannabis users.

Early heart rate responses to standardized trauma-related pictures predict posttraumatic stress disorder: a prospective study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether chronic posttraumatic stress disorder can be predicted by heart rate responses (HRR) and skin conductance responses (SCR) to standardized trauma-related pictures at 1 month after trauma has ocurred. Trauma survivors with PTSD report heightened physiological responses to a wide range of stimuli. It has been suggested that associative learning and stimulus generalization play a key role in the development of these symptoms. Some studies have found that trauma survivors with PTSD show greater physiological responses to individualized trauma reminders in the initial weeks after trauma than those without PTSD.

METHODS

Survivors of motor vehicle accidents or physical assaults (n = 166) watched standardized trauma-related, generally threatening, and neutral pictures at 1 month post trauma, as their HRR and SCR were recorded. PTSD symptoms were assessed with structured clinical interviews at 1 month and 6 months; self-reports of fear responses and dissociation during trauma were obtained soon after the trauma.

RESULTS

At 1 month, trauma survivors with PTSD showed greater HRR to trauma-related pictures than those without PTSD, but not to general threat or neutral pictures. HRR to trauma-related pictures predicted PTSD severity at 1 month and 6 months, and were related to fear and dissociation during trauma. SCR were not related to PTSD.

CONCLUSION

HRR to standardized trauma reminders at 1 month after the trauma differentiate between trauma survivors with and without PTSD, and predict chronic PTSD. RESULTS are consistent with a role of associative learning in PTSD and suggest that early stimulus generalization may be an indicator of risk for chronic PTSD.

All anchors are not created equal: the effects of Per Diem versus lump sum requests on pain and suffering awards

This experiment examined whether different quantifications of the same damage award request ($175,000 lump sum, $10/hour, $240/day, $7300/month for 2 years) influenced pain and suffering awards compared to no damage award request. Jury-eligible community members (N = 180) read a simulated personal injury case in which defendant liability already had been determined. Awards were: (1) larger for the $10/hour and $175,000 conditions than the $7300/month and control conditions and (2) more variable for the $10/hour condition than the $7300/month and control conditions. No differences emerged on ratings of the parties, their attorneys, or the difficulty of picking a compensation figure. We discuss the theoretical implications of our data for the anchoring and adjustment literature and the practical implications for legal professionals.

Comparative optimism among drivers: an intergenerational portrait

We describe a large cross-sectional study examining comparative optimism (CO) regarding the risk of car crash in three age cohorts (17-26, 27-64, 65 and older). The participants completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to indicate their personal risk of being in an at-fault crash over nine driving related events in comparison to young drivers, mid-aged drivers, and older drivers. The results indicated that all three age groups exhibited CO, but that the level varied according to the age group on which they had to base their comparative judgment. Interestingly, greater CO was constantly observed when the three age groups compared themselves to older drivers. Also, young males exhibited greater CO than female of the same age group.

Impact of traffic oscillations on freeway crash occurrences

Traffic oscillations are typical features of congested traffic flow that are characterized by recurring decelerations followed by accelerations (stop-and-go driving). The negative environmental impacts of these oscillations are widely accepted, but their impact on traffic safety has been debated. This paper describes the impact of freeway traffic oscillations on traffic safety. This study employs a matched case-control design using high-resolution traffic and crash data from a freeway segment. Traffic conditions prior to each crash were taken as cases, while traffic conditions during the same periods on days without crashes were taken as controls. These were also matched by presence of congestion, geometry and weather. A total of 82 cases and about 80,000 candidate controls were extracted from more than three years of data from 2004 to 2007. Conditional logistic regression models were developed based on the case-control samples. To verify consistency in the results, 20 different sets of controls were randomly extracted from the candidate pool for varying control-case ratios. The results reveal that the standard deviation of speed (thus, oscillations) is a significant variable, with an average odds ratio of about 1.08. This implies that the likelihood of a (rear-end) crash increases by about 8% with an additional unit increase in the standard deviation of speed. The average traffic states prior to crashes were less significant than the speed variations in congestion.

Risks of visiting snow destinations: an analysis of skiers' views

Very little research exists regarding the risks of visiting snow destinations. This study attempts to bridge this gap through insights into skiers' perceptions of risk, of great relevance to snow industry stakeholders, by identifying factors that influence skiers. The research was conducted in the Spanish Pyrenees, using information gathered from adult members of two ski clubs that regularly visit this snow destination. Skiing risks, accommodation risks and public safety risks were found to have the most important bearing on visitors' risk perceptions. However, actual figures demonstrate that respondents had some difficulties in assessing the typicality of the risk items and tended to misjudge the true level of the risks.

Acts of resistance: breaking the silence of grief following traffic crash fatalities

Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notions of "working through" grief and "recovery" from it and consider how the participants' constructions of an alternative discourse, or normative narrative, possess the potential to challenge a prevailing grief discourse.

Implementing evidence-based policy in a network setting: road safety policy in the Netherlands

In the early 1990s, in order to improve road safety in The Netherlands, the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) developed an evidence-based "Sustainable Safety" concept. Based on this concept, Dutch road safety policy, was seen as successful and as a best practice in Europe. In The Netherlands, the policy context has now changed from a sectoral policy setting towards a fragmented network in which safety is a facet of other transport-related policies. In this contribution, it is argued that the implementation strategy underlying Sustainable Safety should be aligned with the changed context. In order to explore the adjustments needed, two perspectives of policy implementation are discussed: (1) national evidence-based policies with sectoral implementation; and (2) decentralized negotiation on transport policy in which road safety is but one aspect. We argue that the latter approach matches the characteristics of the newly evolved policy context best, and conclude with recommendations for reformulating the implementation strategy.

Psychiatric consequences of stress after a vehicle accident

BACKGROUND

Vehicle accidents are a common cause of disease and death among people over 30 years of age. Essentially, reaction to stress due to the vehicle accident does not differ from the reaction to other stress factors. There are still no uniform viewpoints about the kind of sequels and their percentage representation after vehicle accidents.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The research was provided as a prospective study, included 150 subjects who had vehicle accident minimum 2 years prior to the examination. A questionnaire adjusted to the needs of the research and a battery of psychological tests was used.

RESULTS

Affective disorders occurred in 35.33% of subjects, 65% of persons suffer from travel anxiety, 9% of the total number of examinees doesn't drive any more, 65% have somatisational dysfunctions of the vegetative nervous system, while the posttraumatic stress disorder is present in 36% of subjects.

CONCLUSION

In 87.4% of persons psychiatric consequences last over two years. Long term consequences in 60% of subjects occur as a combination of multiple psychiatric disorders, so the posttraumatic stress disorder and affective disorders never occur one at a time.

Drug use and criminal activity among rural probationers with DUI histories

The present study examined whether ever being arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) was associated with higher levels of substance use and criminal activity in a sample of 800 probationers. Lifetime and 30-day histories of substance use and criminal activity were compared across three groups of probationers from rural Kentucky: those with a single DUI arrest, those with two or more DUI arrests, and those with no DUI arrests. A larger percentage of probationers with a DUI arrest reported lifetime and 30-day substance use than non-DUI offenders in almost all drug and alcohol categories. Higher prevalence of criminal activity was limited primarily to the multiple DUI arrest group. Findings add to the literature on rural substance abusers and indicate that DUI may be used as a marker to help identify opportunities for targeted substance abuse interventions.

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.

Neuropsychological assessment of driving ability and self-evaluation: a comparison between driving offenders and a control group

The relationship between performance in neuropsychological tests and actual driving performance is unclear and results of studies on this topic differ. This makes it difficult to use neuropsychological tests to assess driving ability. The ability to compensate cognitive deficits plays a crucial role in this context. We compared neuropsychological test results and self-evaluation ratings between three groups: driving offenders with a psychiatric diagnosis relevant for driving ability (mainly alcohol dependence), driving offenders without such a diagnosis and a control group of non-offending drivers. Subjects were divided into two age categories (19-39 and 40-66 years). It was assumed that drivers with a psychiatric diagnosis relevant for driving ability and younger driving offenders without a psychiatric diagnosis would be less able to adequately assess their own capabilities than the control group. The driving offenders with a psychiatric diagnosis showed poorer concentration, reactivity, cognitive flexibility and problem solving, and tended to overassess their abilities in intelligence and attentional functions, compared to the other two groups. Conversely, younger drivers rather underassessed their performance.

[Pre-collision pain and psychological distress predict poor outcome following acute whiplash trauma--secondary publication]

Patients with acute whiplash trauma were followed to examine if pre-collision pain and psychological distress were associated with reduced work capability and neck pain at 12 month follow-up. Pre-collision unspecified pain was associated with reduced work capability, and neck pain and pre-collision psychological distress was associated with neck pain. In conclusion unspecified pain (as opposed to specified pain) and high accumulation of pre-collision psychological distress (as opposed to a single psychological disorder) before the collision was associated with poor recovery at follow-up.

[Short-term psychological consequences of car accidents: an empirical study]

AIM

Aim of this study is to investigate short-term (3 and 5 months) psychological consequences of severe motor-vehicle accidents.

METHODS

The sample under investigation is composed of two groups: 8 survivors of severe motor-vehicle accidents with spinal cord injuries (SCI) hospitalized in a Spinal Cord Unit, and 6 survivors who did not require hospitalization. All subjects were assessed twice, three and five months after the accident, on a variety of measures including the CAPS and the BDI-SF.

RESULTS

Prevalence of PTSD in the total sample was, 3 months after the accident, 14% with no significant differences between the two groups; some peculiarities in the symptomathological profile emerged as much as subjects with SCI experience avoidance of trauma-related stimuli more frequently. An overall decline in frequency and severity of post-traumatic symptoms between the two assessments was observed in the total sample, though some components (Criterion C symptoms) showed no relevant variations over time. Finally, depressive symptoms, which were characterized by higher severity in the SCI group, showed a significant decline between the two assessments.

DISCUSSION

Our data, although based on a limited sample, might help in tailoring psychological interventions for prevention and treatment of PTSD in survivors of severe motor accidents.

Motorcyclists' reactions to safety helmet law: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Extensive body of the literature reveals that proper use of helmets is an effective way to reduce the severity of injuries and fatalities among motorcyclists. However, many motorcyclists do not use safety helmet properly. This study aimed to empirically explore reactions of motorcyclists to the safety helmet laws, in Iran.

METHODS

Qualitative data were collected via four focus groups and 11 in-depth interviews. Participants were 28 male motorcyclists who never used a safety helmet during rides, and 4 male police officers. All transcripts, codes and categories were read for several times to exhaust identifiable major themes. During this process data were reduced from text to codes and themes.

RESULTS

Five major themes emerged from the data analyses, including themes related to the following: (1) circumventing or dodging police officers; (2) simulating a helmet wearing behavior; (3) accepting the probability of receiving a ticket; (4) taking advantage of the police neglect and carelessness; and (5) using a cheap or convenient helmet.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest certain levels of reckless driving among the participating motorcyclists in this study. They also point to a system of law enforcement that operates haphazardly and fails to consistently penalize those who deviate from it. Further studies are needed to investigate how "risks" are perceived and relate to "reactions", and how a 'culture of masculinity' may encourage risk tolerance and a disposition toward lawlessness and carelessness among male motorcyclists. Also, there is a need for the development and implementation of multidimensional interventions that would offer socio-culturally sensitive educational and motivational messages to the motorcyclists and the in-service traffic-enforcement officers in Iran.

A comparison of web-based and telephone surveys for assessing traffic safety concerns, beliefs, and behaviors

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the results of a web-based and a telephone interview survey measuring driver concerns about a variety of traffic safety issues, their beliefs, and specific driving behaviors.

METHOD

State-wide, annual random digit-dial telephone surveys and web-based surveys were conducted in Maryland. A total of 1,700 drivers were surveyed by telephone and 6,806 took a web survey.

RESULTS

Telephone respondents were more likely to be female and older. Web respondents were more likely to be white and not Latino/Hispanic. After controlling for demographic differences, telephone survey respondents were more likely to be concerned about traffic safety. They were more likely to believe that sobriety checkpoints reduce drunk driving (OR=2.18, 95% CI 1.94, 2.45), they would be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt (OR=1.26, 95% CI 1.12, 1.43), and they would be stopped by the police if they drove after drinking too much (OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.03, 1.32). They were less likely to report a variety of risky behaviors including using a cell phone while driving (OR=.54, 95% CI .48, .61) and driving 10+ mph over the speed limit (OR=.81, 95% CI .72, .91), but were more likely to report having been ticketed for a moving violation in the last month (OR=2.22, 95% CI 1.70, 2.90). Suggestions are offered for overcoming potential sources of sampling bias.

IMPACT ON INDUSTRY

Web-based surveys produce substantially different results than random-digit-dial telephone surveys, when used for public assessments of traffic safety concerns and behaviors.

The Health Belief Model variables as predictors of risky driving behaviors among commuters in Yazd, Iran

BACKGROUND

Road traffic injuries are a major but neglected global public health problem. The human factor appears in the literature as the most prevalent contributing factor of road traffic crashes. The purpose of the study was to utilize components of the Health Belief Model to predict risky driving behaviors among a sample of commuters in Yazd, Iran.

METHODS

A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed. A two-stage cluster sampling was used to recruit 300 drivers to participate in the study.

RESULTS

The most reported risky driving behavior was speaking with others and using a cell phone, both while driving. There was a negative statistically significant association between risky driving behaviors and age. The occurrence of risky driving behaviors was higher among males as well as single drivers and was inversely related to education level. There was also a positive statistically significant correlation between risky driving behaviors and road traffic accidents and the number of traffic citations/fines. Perceived severity, susceptibility, barriers, threat, and net benefits were significantly related to risky driving behaviors.

CONCLUSION

The pattern of risky driving behaviors, and safe driving barriers among commuters in Yazd, Iran, which are identified in this study, could be used in planning effective intervention programs to improve the driving habits of the commuters. The results of the study showed that Health Belief Model can be used as a conceptual framework for intervention programs aimed at decreasing road traffic accidents.