This book is dedicated to research on transportation accidental injury and damage, including the pre-injury and immediate post-injury phases. It also includes studies of human, environmental and vehicular factors influencing the occurrence, type and severity of transportation accidents and injury; the design, implementation and evaluation of countermeasures; biomechanics of impact and human tolerance limits to injury; modelling and statistical analysis of accident data; policy, planning and decision-making in safety and prevention of traffic accidents.

Every day thousands of people are killed and injured on our roads. Millions of people each year will spend long weeks in the hospital after severe crashes and many will never be able to live, work or play as they used to do. Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering. This report presents a comprehensive overview of what is known about the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes. Over 100 experts, from all continents and different sectors -- including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society -- have worked to produce the report. Charts and tables.

Accidents are inevitable in our lives and they affect us in many aspects ranging from economical to social, health to legal. While it is not possible to remove accidents from our lives completely, it is possible to develop new techniques or set new standards or prepare contingency plans to reduce their possibility of happening or to alleviate their consequences. This book, aiming to enlighten our ways to prevent accidents, is a compilation of articles authored by reputable international academicians from several disciplines such as maritime studies, defense technologies, emergency management, and psychiatry and behavioral medicine.

This book examines causes and deterrents of transportation accidents by mode--automobiles, truck, air, recreational boating, commercial vessels and railroads--with the focus on accidents in the U.S. The examination enhances our understanding for developing effective multimodal public policies for improving transportation safety. The discussion reveals that the primary cause of accidents in one mode may not be the primary cause in another mode and equally that an effective deterrent for improving safety in one mode may not be an effective deterrent for another mode. The book will be of interest to policy makers and investigators of transportation safety. The book consists of nine chapters. Following the Introduction chapter, possible causes of highway accidents--driver, vehicle, and highway characteristics--are examined in Chapter 2 along with economic and environmental factors. Chapter 3 then discusses the effectiveness of various deterrent policies--motor vehicle inspection, the minimum legal drinking age, the speed limit, and seat belt laws--for auto accidents, as well as the effects of vehicle speed and speed variance on these accidents. This is followed by a discussion of causes and deterrents of truck accidents in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 considers air accidents, discussing the role of economic deregulation and type of air carrier. Chapter 6 addresses recreational boating accidents, with particular attention given to alcohol involvement in these accidents. Chapter 7 examines commercial vessel accidents with a discussion of safety standards and enforcement. Chapter 8 considers rail accidents, with particular attention given to the effects of deregulation. The final chapter summarizes lessons learned from the previous chapters for improving transportation safety across modes, i.e., for reducing transportation accidents, accident risk, and accident severity.

Estimating the Human Cost of Transportation Accidents: Methodologies and Policy Implications discusses the estimation methods needed to determine the monetary value of loss of life and quality of life when evaluating transportation safety programs, policies and projects. In addition, it highlights how to overcome the many challenges researchers face in choosing the right values, including estimating loss of life and life quality, examining strengths and weaknesses, and critically analyzing social costs and implications. This book will allow researchers to better formulate accurate social costs, select safety improvement values, and understand limitations. - Provides a comprehensive, theoretical, one-stop reference on non-market valuation methodologies, issues and policy implications for transportation health, safety and economics researchers - Helps researchers better evaluate the actual total cost of road safety programs, policies and projects, including life quality valuation due to environmental impacts, such as harmful vehicle emissions - Provides valuable case studies from around the globe

Every day, thousands of people are killed and injured on roads around the world, with the costs of this growing, but largely preventable, public health concern disproportionately affecting vulnerable social groups and developing countries. In order to address these issues, the World Health Organization and the World Bank have produced this joint report on road traffic injury prevention, based on the collaborative contributions of experts and institutions, from all continents and different sectors, including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society. It presents a comprehensive overview of the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes.

This Transportation Research Record contains 28 papers dealing with statistical methods in highway safety research; highway safety data, analysis, and evaluation; occupant protection; and systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The papers address such topics as risk and crash prediction models, crashes on freeways and at signalized intersections, multivehicle crash prediction, speed and safety, red light running crashes, freeway lane closures, ramp design, accident exposure, rumble strip benefits, collisions with median trees, intersection safety, accident reconstruction, safety effects of speed limit changes, geometric design and head-on crashes, deer-vehicle crashes, sport utility vehicle rollover, vehicle occupancy and crash risk, a logit model for studying injury severity, abdominal injuries in rail passengers, healthy transport policies, and meta-analysis.