Blame attribution analysis of police motor vehicle collision reports involving child bicyclists

BACKGROUND

Injuries resulting from collisions between a bicyclist and driver are preventable and have high economic, personal and societal costs. Studying the language choices used by police officers to describe factors responsible for child bicyclist-motor vehicle collisions may help shift prevention efforts away from vulnerable road users to motorists and the environment. The overall aim was to investigate how police officers attribute blame in child (≤18 years) bicycle-motor vehicle collision scenarios.

METHODS

A document analysis approach was used to analyse Alberta Transportation police collision reports from Calgary and Edmonton (2016-2017). Collision reports were categorised by the research team according to perceived blame (child, driver, both, neither, unsure). Content analysis was then used to examine police officer language choices. A narrative thematic analysis of the individual, behavioural, structural and environmental factors leading to collision blame was then conducted.

RESULTS

Of 171 police collision reports included, child bicyclists were perceived to be at fault in 78 reports (45.6%) and adult drivers were perceived at fault in 85 reports (49.7%). Child bicyclists were portrayed through language choices as being irresponsible and irrational, leading to interactions with drivers and collisions. Risk perception issues were also mentioned frequently in relation to poor decisions made by child bicyclists. Most police officer reports discussed road user behaviours, and children were frequently blamed for collisions.

CONCLUSIONS

This work provides an opportunity to re-examine perceptions of factors related to motor vehicle and child bicyclist collisions with a view to prevention.

Violence Prevention Programs Are Effective When Initiated During the Initial Workup of Patients in an Urban Level I Trauma Center

This study represents the first attempt at evaluating the ability of the CureViolence Hospital-Response Intervention Program (previously CeaseFire) to disrupt the pattern of violent reinjury. The clinical data points of 300 African American men who presented to our trauma center with a gunshot wound and received intervention at the bedside between 2005 and 2007 (with a 48-month follow-up) were collected. This cohort was matched with a post hoc historical control group using hospital records from 2003 to 2005. The mean age for both groups was 23.9 years. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained. Using a binary logistical regression model, we assessed the performance of three variables of interest: age at the time of the initial injury, treatment group, and initial disposition group to predict recidivism. We utilized the Nagelkerke R square method, which described the proportion of the variance of the reinjury rate and validated our findings using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (for goodness-of-fit). Six percent (n = 18) of subjects in the treatment group and 11% (n = 33) in the control group returned with a new injury, yielding a total reinjury rate of 8.5%. Most patients returned only once with another violent injury. Individuals who did not receive CureViolence services were nearly twice as likely (odds ratio = 1.94; 95% confidence interval = 1.065, 3.522) to return with a violent reinjury. This finding suggests that Hospital-Response Intervention Programs (HRIP) have a protective effect in violently injured patients. We therefore conclude our HRIP positively affected at-risk patients and prevented violent reinjury.

Construction and Evaluation of a Safe Community Evaluation Index System-A Study of Urban China

A community is the basic unit of a city. Scientific and effective evaluations of the construction effect of safe communities can improve the construction capacity of community disaster prevention and mitigation; it is also the basis for improving urban public safety and realizing stable and sustainable urban operation. First, following the development framework of a safe community and taking two typical communities in Xi'an, China, as examples, based on the literature and expert opinions, the initial indicators of a safe community are determined. Second, based on existing data, the literature and expert opinions, a questionnaire is designed, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire are tested by exploratory factor analysis. Third, the indicators for evaluating the construction ability of a safe community are selected. Finally, an evaluation model of the construction ability of safe communities is constructed by using the comprehensive weighting technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS), which is applied to the actual evaluation of eighteen representative communities in Xi'an. The main findings are as follows. (1) The sense of community security is the collective consciousness of community residents. It includes not only the security and feelings of community residents themselves, but also the cognition of the impact of social policies at the macro and micro-levels on community residents, their families, and even the whole community. (2) From the three levels of consciousness, technology, and policy as the starting points for the construction of the theoretical model of a safe community, organizational resilience, accessibility resilience, social environmental resilience, and capital resilience are found to be the main influencing factors in the construction of a safe community. (3) Using questionnaires and expert interviews to preliminarily screen evaluation indicators and using the comprehensive weighting TOPSIS method to build an evaluation model can effectively avoid the defects of traditional empirical research on the validity and reliability of methods. (4) The ranking of the eighteen representative communities in the empirical analysis is basically consistent with the selection results of the national comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration community, which indicates the effectiveness and accuracy of the indicators and algorithms.

Governance and injury prevention

Urban governance implies that state authorities and other actors (including private and social sectors) work together with authentic community participation as needed to meet the challenges to achieve urban health. In this context, addressing the problem of injury is critical. In urban space, injuries can occur for various external causes (falls, burns, even interpersonal violence, etc). This paper includes a discussion and analysis of governance mechanisms on urban areas, in terms of the implementation of the safe system approach which has been proposed as the best preventive strategy, to assure road safety, mostly at urban spaces, for injury prevention. The existence of governance mechanisms needs to be considered as a primary issue to be included on injury research to evaluate the implementation for preventive programmes on the injury field in general, especially those occurred at urban spaces.

Decrease in injuries from fireworks in Hawaii: associations with a county policy to limit access

OBJECTIVE

To examine trends in fireworks-related injuries (FRI) before and after enactment of an ordinance to limit access in the City and County of Honolulu (the island of Oahu).

METHODS

Surveillance of FRI treated in all emergency departments in the state, for 18 new year's periods (31 December through 1 January) from 2004 to 2021. Prelaw (2004 to 2011) and postlaw (2012 to 2021) number of FRI were compared, by patient age and county.

RESULTS

The average annual number of FRI for all ages decreased significantly in Oahu, from 74 during the prelaw period to 27 during the postlaw period (p<0.01), but not in the remaining neighbour islands (p=0.07). Decreases were particularly evident for Oahu paediatric patients (under 18 years), among whom FRI declined from 42 to 10 per year (p<0.01). FRI were approximately halved for older Oahu patients and neighbour island paediatric patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Legislation requiring permits for a specified number and type of fireworks, and limiting access to persons 18 years and older was associated with significant decreases in FRI in the City and County of Honolulu.

SAFER brief community intervention: a primary suicide prevention strategy to improve firearm and medication storage behaviour

OBJECTIVE

To determine if a brief intervention, called Signpost, Assess, Facts, Emotion, Recommend (SAFER), designed to motivate changes in behaviour to secure firearms and medications to prevent future suicide is feasible to implement in community-based settings such as gun shows, acceptable to participants at higher risk for suicide including veterans and men in the middles years (35-64) and improves firearm and medication locking behaviours.

METHODS

1175 people received SAFER over a 12-month period at 18 gun shows and community events in 2019 and completed a preassessment measuring firearms ownership, storage practices, knowledge about suicide as the leading type of firearm fatality and attitudes about suicide prevention. 372 responded to a brief postassessment using comparable measures.

RESULTS

85% of participants reported keeping firearms at home. 43.7% reported current or prior military service. 53.2% were males between the ages of 35 and 64. Among those who responded to the postassessment, 61% of participants reported SAFER to be highly valuable. Safe firearms storage improved among participants who completed the preassessment and postassessment (51.2% pre, 66.0% post; p<0.01) as did safe medication storage (14.8% pre, 21.6% post; p=0.01). Knowledge that most firearm fatalities are suicides (33.4% pre, 45.8% post; p<0.01) also improved.

CONCLUSIONS

It is feasible, acceptable and effective to reach groups at elevated risk for suicide using a brief intervention strategy in unconventional settings. Community-based interventions to improve safe storage motivated by suicide prevention messaging should be prioritised because men in the middle years are less likely to use mental health services.

Out of the silos: embedding injury prevention into the Sustainable Development Goals

Globally, unintentional injuries contribute significantly to disability and death. Prevention efforts have traditionally focused on individual injury mechanisms and their specific risk factors, which has resulted in slow progress in reducing the burden. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a global agenda for promoting human prosperity while respecting planetary boundaries. While injury prevention is currently only recognised in the SDG agenda via two road safety targets, the relevance of the SDGs for injury prevention is much broader. In this State of the Art Review, we illustrate how unintentional injury prevention efforts can be advanced substantially within a broad range of SDG goals and advocate for the integration of safety considerations across all sectors and stakeholders. This review uncovers injury prevention opportunities within broader global priorities such as urbanisation, population shifts, water safeguarding and corporate social responsibility. We demonstrate the relevance of injury prevention efforts to the SDG agenda beyond the health goal (SDG 3) and the two specific road safety targets (SDG 3.6 and SDG 11.2), highlighting 13 additional SDGs of relevance. We argue that all involved in injury prevention are at a critical juncture where we can continue with the status quo and expect to see more of the same, or mobilise the global community in an 'Injury Prevention in All Policies' approach.

Developing safe community and healthy city joint model

BACKGROUND

Healthy city and safe community programs are the most common initiatives gaining increasing appeal in various communities to improve safety and health, independently. The aim of this study was to develop a joint application model of safe community and healthy city.

METHODS

A comprehensive literature review was conducted on healthy city and safe community programs using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct and also related websites such as WHO regional offices in 2018. The preliminary list of joint model dimensions and topics were extracted and then assessed by the expert through two rounds of decision Delphi and four expert panel sessions. Eventually, the visual model was developed and approved by the experts.

RESULTS

Literature review resulted in the identification of 11 programs on safety and health promotion in the community of which 35 topics were extracted. After investigating the topics accordance, they were judged (correction, merging or eliminating) by experts through Delphi rounds and panel sessions. Eventually a joint model comprising 14 dimensions, 3 core principles and 4 values called "Safe and Health Promoting Community, SHPC_ model" was developed.

CONCLUSIONS

SHPC model provides a parallel and comprehensive view on safety and health topics in a community. The implementation of an integrated model could be one possible way to enhance the commitments on behalf of state and local government, and health system leaders to prioritize injuries and non-communicable disease prevention to address promotion, prevention, treatment and social consequences of mutual community-based interventions.

Determinants of child safety seat use among parents in an International Safe Community, Tehran, Iran

Objective: Road traffic accidents are a global issue and serious threat for public health. Children are at high risk of serious injury or death from motor vehicle crashes. Child safety seats (CSSs) can reduce the risk of death and serious injury in children. This study was done to determine the prevalence of child safety seat use in vehicles and the factors influencing their use in a safe society (Tehran, Iran) in 2015.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 804 parents with children under 12 years old who owned private cars were questioned in different areas of Tehran. A questionnaire included demographic data, and 2 specific questionnaires were used for families that used a CSS and those did not use a CSS. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. All analyses were carried out using SPSS 21.Results: The prevalence of child safety seat use was 18.7% and was significantly higher among parents with an income greater than 50 million rials/month, parents who received child safety seat recommendations, parents living in the north of Tehran, and fathers with more driving experience. Age, weight, and height of children were also factors that influenced the use of child safety seats. The most common reasons for parents to use child safety seats was awareness about the benefits of this device and fear of harm to the child, and the most common reasons for nonuse were child intolerance while sitting in the seat and cost.Conclusion: The prevalence of child safety seat use in Tehran is very low, and most parents are not aware of the importance of child safety seats. Comprehensive programs, including legislation, law enforcement, public education, and publicity to promote the benefits of using CSSs, in Tehran can be an effective step toward increasing the use of child safety devices.

What is the level of household gun ownership in urban Mexico? An estimate from the first Mexican survey on gun ownership 2017

Gun violence has increased in Mexico since the mid-2000s, but little is known about patterns of gun ownership. We examine the size and composition of the privately held urban firearm stock in Mexico, motivations for ownership, and attitudes about gun laws. To this end, a household telephone survey of 1361 adults living in nine Mexican cities was conducted in the summer of 2017. We find that few urban Mexican households contain guns. Most of those who report ownership possess one gun, having purchased it recently for self-defense. Few urban Mexican citizens plan to purchase a gun in the future. Respondents are more likely to believe that crime in Mexico would increase if guns were allowed in more places (ie, workplaces and motor vehicles). Evidence suggests urban Mexico has relative low rates of firearm ownership. Few city dwellers plan on obtaining a firearm in the near future.

Neighbourhood social trust and youth perceptions of safety during daily activities

Exposure to adverse neighbourhood conditions can negatively impact adolescent well-being and perceived safety. However, the impact of neighbourhood social trust on perceived safety is largely unknown. We studied 139 adolescent men to investigate how their perceptions of safety varied as a function of social trust levels in the neighbourhoods they traversed; neighbourhoods that were not necessarily their own. Adolescents mapped their minute-by-minute activities over a recent day and rated their perceived safety on a 10-point scale during in-person interviews. Neighbourhood social trust was measured via a citywide random sample survey. Mixed effects regression showed that, compared with their safety perceptions when in areas of low social trust, older adolescents were 73% more likely to feel unsafe when in areas of medium social trust, and 89% more likely to feel unsafe when in areas of high social trust. Inverse relationships between neighbourhood social trust and adolescents' perceived safety highlight the complex interplay between youth, environmental contexts and safety.

Safe Kids Week: Analysis of gender bias in a national child safety campaign, 1997-2016

Background and Purpose Child safety campaigns play an important role in disseminating injury prevention information to families. A critical discourse analysis of gender bias in child safety campaign marketing materials can offer important insights into how families are represented and the potential influence that gender bias may have on uptake of injury prevention information. Methods Our approach was informed by poststructural feminist theory, and we used critical discourse analysis to identify discourses within the poster materials. We examined the national Safe Kids Canada Safe Kids Week campaign poster material spanning twenty years (1997-2016). Specifically, we analyzed the posters' typeface, colour, images, and language to identify gender bias in relation to discourses surrounding parenting, safety, and societal perceptions of gender. Results The findings show that there is gender bias present in the Safe Kids Week poster material. The posters represent gender as binary, mothers as primary caregivers, and showcase stereotypically masculine sporting equipment among boys and stereotypically feminine equipment among girls. Interestingly, we found that the colour and typeface of the text both challenge and perpetuate the feminization of safety. Discussion It is recommended that future child safety campaigns represent changing family dynamics, include representations of children with non-traditionally gendered sporting equipment, and avoid the representation of gender as binary. This analysis contributes to the discussion of the feminization of safety in injury prevention research and challenges the ways in which gender is represented in child safety campaigns.

An observational study of child safety seat use in an international safe community: Tehran, Iran

OBJECTIVE

Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness of child safety seats in reducing injuries, the use of these devices in some communities is still rare. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of child safety seat use and the factors influencing its use in the safe community of Tehran.

METHODS

This roadside observational study was conducted in 2015 and 2,178 personal cars with a child under 12 years aboard were observed on Tehran's streets in regard to use of child safety seats. Other variables such as the gender of the driver, driver's age group, type of street, region of municipality, time of day, and day of the week were also collected.

RESULTS

Prevalence of child safety seat use was 4.3% and was significantly higher among women drivers, on freeways, and in municipal regions 1, 4, and 7.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of child safety seat use in Tehran as a most populous member of the international safe community was very low and most children commuted in insecure situations in the vehicle. Therefore, it is proposed that plans should be made to increase the use of child safety seats in international safe communities.

Safe communities in China as a strategy for injury prevention and safety promotion programmes in the era of rapid economic growth

Due to its rapid economic development, China is facing a huge health, social, and economic burden resulting from injuries. The study's objective was to examine Safe Communities in China as a strategy for injury prevention and safety promotion programmes in the era of rapid economic growth. Literature searches in English and Chinese, which included grey literature, were performed on the Chinese Journal Full-text Search System and Medline, using the words "Safe Community", "injury", "economics", and "prevention". The results showed that the existing 35 recognized members of the International Safe Community Network have not placed due emphasis on suicide prevention, which is one of the leading problems in both rural and urban China. A few groups, such as children, the elderly, cyclists, and pedestrians, have received due emphasis, while other vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers, motorcyclists, students, players, and farmers have not received the necessary attention from the Safe Community perspective. As the evidence describes, Safe Communities in China can be a very effective strategy for injury prevention, but four aspects need to be strengthened in the future: (1) establish and strengthen the policy and regulations in terms of injury prevention at the national level; (2) create a system to involve professional organizations and personnel in projects; (3) consider the economic development status of different parts of China; and (4) intentional injury prevention should receive greater attention.