Watch for motorcycles! The effects of texting and handheld bans on motorcyclist fatalities

The association between strengthened cellphone laws and police-reported rear-end crash rates

INTRODUCTION

Prior evaluations of the connection between cellphone bans and crashes show unclear results. California, Oregon, and Washington enacted legislation (effective in 2017) to update earlier bans specific to handheld conversation and texting. This study evaluated the relationship between the laws and rear-end rates, a crash type sensitive to visual-manual cellphone use, in California, Oregon, and Washington.

METHOD

Negative binomial regression compared the change in monthly per capita rear-end crash rates in California, Oregon, and Washington before and after the law changes relative to two control states, Colorado and Idaho, during 2015-2019. Analyses examined (a) rear-end crashes with injuries in all three study states, including minor to fatal injuries; and (b) rear-end crashes of all severities in California and Washington, including property-damage-only crashes and crashes with injuries; Oregon was excluded from this analysis because of a 2018 change to its reporting criteria for property-damage-only crashes.

RESULTS

Washington's strengthened law was associated with a significant 7.6% reduction in the rate of monthly rear-end crashes of all severities relative to the controls. Law changes in Oregon and Washington were associated with significant reductions of 8.8% and 10.9%, respectively, in the rates of monthly rear-end crashes with injury relative to the controls. California did not experience changes in rear-end crash rates of all severities or with injuries associated with the strengthened law.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study are mixed, with law changes associated with significant reductions in rear-end crash rates in two of the three study states. Differences in the wording of the laws, levels of enforcement, and sanction severity may help explain the divergent results.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Crash reductions in Oregon and Washington suggest that enacting legislation that comprehensively bans practically all visual-manual cellphone activity may have made the laws easier to enforce and clarified to drivers that handheld cellphone use is unacceptable in these states.

A Comprehensive Review on the Behaviour of Motorcyclists: Motivations, Issues, Challenges, Substantial Analysis and Recommendations

With the continuous emergence of new technologies and the adaptation of smart systems in transportation, motorcyclist driving behaviour plays an important role in the transition towards intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Studying motorcyclist driving behaviour requires accurate models with accurate and complete datasets for better road safety and traffic management. As accuracy is needed in modelling, motorcyclist driving behaviour analyses can be performed using sensors that collect driving behaviour characteristics during real-time experiments. This review article systematically investigates the literature on motorcyclist driving behaviour to present many findings related to the issues, problems, challenges, and research gaps that have existed over the last 10 years (2011-2021). A number of digital databases (i.e., IEEE Xplore®, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched and explored to collect reliable peer-reviewed articles. Out of the 2214 collected articles, only 174 articles formed the final set of articles used in the analysis of the motorcyclist research area. The filtration process consisted of two stages that were implemented on the collected articles. Inclusion criteria were the core of the first stage of the filtration process keeping articles only if they were a study or review written in English or were articles that mainly incorporated the driving style of motorcyclists. The second phase of the filtration process is based on more rules for article inclusion. The criteria of inclusion for the second phase of filtration examined the deployment of motorcyclist driver behaviour characterisation procedures using a real-time-based data acquisition system (DAS) or a questionnaire. The final number of articles was divided into three main groups: reviews (7/174), experimental studies (41/174), and social studies-based articles (126/174). This taxonomy of the literature was developed to group the literature into articles with similar types of experimental conditions. Recommendation topics are also presented to enable and enhance the pace of the development in this research area. Research gaps are presented by implementing a substantial analysis of the previously proposed methodologies. The analysis mainly identified the gaps in the development of data acquisition systems, model accuracy, and data types incorporated in the proposed models. Finally, research directions towards ITS are provided by exploring key topics necessary in the advancement of this research area.

The Car Cushion Hypothesis: Bigger Cars Lead to More Risk Taking-Evidence from Behavioural Data

Car traffic and accidents involving cars create an enormous societal cost, particularly in terms of negative consequences for public health. Mitigating these effects is a daily concern for public and private institutions and people around the world. At least a subset of accidents is attributable to the amount of risk drivers allow in their driving and in related behaviour like mobile phone use or substance abuse. Our study looks at the effect of car size on risk taking. While literature highlights several behavioural effects of car size, the direction of causality of these effects is not always clear, and empirical evidence is lacking. Two behavioural and consequential studies support that car size affects risk taking in driving and that this increase in risk taking generalizes to other domains as well. Based on these results and in line with literature showing that social stability and security can affect financial risk taking, we propose the "car cushion hypothesis." This hypothesis suggests that bigger cars make people feel more secure, which affects their behaviour in terms of generalized risk taking. We discuss policy implications aimed at contributing to reducing the societal and public health cost of car traffic.

Exploring the impacts of built environment on pedestrian injury severity involving distracted driving

INTRODUCTION

This study develops an injury severity model that demonstrates level of pedestrians' injury severity during pedestrian-vehicle collisions, specifically those involving distracted driving.

METHOD

It uses data from a police-reported collision database that contains pedestrian-vehicle collision information in Nova Scotia, Canada. A latent segmentation-based ordered logit (LSOL) model is developed in this paper that comprehensively examines the influence of built environment characteristics on pedestrian injury severity. It estimates a latent segment allocation model within LSOL modeling framework to capture unobserved heterogeneity across pedestrians. Two latent segments, high- and low-risk segments, are identified probabilistically based on pedestrian characteristics and action, driver action, and collision attributes.

RESULTS

Results suggest that higher mixed land-use, transit stop density, length of sidewalk in the collision locations, and collisions occurring near schools yield lower pedestrian injury severity. In contrast, pedestrian-vehicle collisions in arterial roads, curved roads, sloped roads, and roundabouts tend to result in severe injuries. Interactions between distracted driving type and built environment characteristics are examined in this study. For example, using a communication device while driving on straight roads increases likelihood of higher pedestrian injury severity. This study also confirms the existence of heterogeneity across latent segments. For instance, higher percentage of people commuting by walking in the collision areas yield severe pedestrian injury in high-risk segments and lower injury severity in low-risk segments. Practical applications: The findings of this study will assist transportation planners and road safety stakeholders in developing effective and prioritized policies to reduce pedestrian injury severity involving distracted driving incidents.

Bans on Cellphone Use While Driving and Traffic Fatalities in the United States

BACKGROUND

As of January 2020, 18 of 50 US states comprehensively banned almost all handheld cellphone use while driving, 3 states and the District of Columbia banned calling and texting, 27 states banned texting on a handheld cellphone, and 2 states had no general cellphone ban for all drivers. However, it remains unknown whether these bans were associated with fewer traffic deaths and whether comprehensive handheld bans are more effective than isolated calling or texting bans. We evaluated whether cellphone bans were associated with fewer driver, non-driver, and total fatalities nationally.

METHODS

We conducted a longitudinal panel analysis of traffic fatality rates by state, year, and quarter. Population-based rate ratios and 95% CIs were estimated comparing state-quarters with and without cellphone bans.

RESULTS

From 1999 through 2016, 616,289 persons including 344,003 drivers died in passenger vehicle crashes in the United States. Relative to no ban, comprehensive handheld bans were associated with lower driver fatality rates (adjusted rate ratio aRR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.90, 0.97) but not for non-driver fatalities (aRR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.95, 1.07) or total fatalities (aRR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.94, 1.01). We found no differences in driver fatalities for calling-only bans (aRR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.97, 1.03), texting-only bans (aRR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.99, 1.05), texting plus phone-manipulating bans (aRR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.04), or calling and texting bans (aRR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.88, 1.09).

CONCLUSIONS

Comprehensive handheld bans were associated with fewer driver fatalities.

Evaluating the impact of penalising the use of mobile phones while driving on road traffic fatalities, serious injuries and mobile phone use: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

A vast literature has demonstrated that using mobile phones while driving increases the risk of road traffic crashes. In response, policy-makers have introduced bans and harsher penalties on using mobile phones while driving. Even though emerging evidence suggests that such measures may reduce mobile phone use and crashes, the literature has not been systematically reviewed and synthesised.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the impact of penalising mobile phone use while driving on road traffic fatalities, serious injuries and the prevalence of mobile phone use while driving.

METHODS

We employed a comprehensive search strategy using electronic databases, websites, handsearching and other sources to locate studies evaluating legislation on mobile phone use while driving. Randomised controlled trials, interrupted time series', controlled before-after studies with control(s) not exposed to harsher sanctions and panel data designs were included if they measured the outcomes of fatalities, serious injuries or the prevalence of mobile phone use while driving. Eligible studies were critically appraised. Due to substantial heterogeneity, the results were synthesised narratively. The synthesis structured studies according to the type of legislation and outcome measure.

RESULTS

Of the 7420 studies retrieved, 32 were included. The evidence on the effects of penalising mobile phone use while driving was weak, and somewhat inconsistent, but pointed to a potential decrease in the prevalence of mobile phone use and fatalities for all-driver primary enforcement hand-held bans and texting bans.

CONCLUSIONS

Preventing fatalities from risky driving practices may be helped by implementing harsher laws that penalise mobile phone use while driving.

Determining the incidence of distraction among trauma patients in all modes of transportation

BACKGROUND

The use of distracting technology is an increasing source of risk for injury among trauma patients. Both drivers and pedestrians show increased unsafe behavior. The data for prevalence and risk for distraction in trauma has varied widely. Our hypothesis is that distraction is more highly prevalent and widely distributed among all mechanisms of injury and variety of trauma patients.

METHODS

A 10-question survey of adult trauma victims at a Level I trauma center regarding distraction at time of event was performed, examining age, sex, ethnicity, education level, mode of injury and role in the accident (driver, passenger, pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist). Multiple-variable logistic regression was performed to identify risk factors for distraction.

RESULTS

From June 2016 to October 2018, 1,316 patients were surveyed, and 1,011 (76.8%) patients reported their role in the traffic accident. The prevalence of distraction was 21.73% among drivers, 9.01% among passengers, 16.50% among pedestrians, 20.00% among bicyclists, and 8.09% among motorcyclists. Males (odds ratio [OR], 1.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26-2.67) as well as all Others (OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.10-3.98) showed statistically significant increased risk for distraction. Motorcyclist (OR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.13-0.50) and passenger (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.77) roles during collision were a lowered risk of distraction. Furthermore, Asian/Pacific Islanders (OR, 1.62; 95% CI, 0.94-2.79) trended toward being at greater risk for distraction.

CONCLUSION

Distraction is prevalent among a wide range of traffic accident victims, not just drivers. Males as well as all Others are more likely to be distracted. In contrast, motorcyclists and passengers are less likely to be distracted. Further studies to assist in determining effective interventions and public safety efforts aimed at specific at-risk groups beyond motor vehicle drivers are warranted.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Epidemiological, level V.