scholarly journals Comparison of physical and psychological health outcomes for motorcyclists and other road users after land transport crashes: an inception cohort study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa N. Sharwood ◽  
Annette Kifley ◽  
Ashley Craig ◽  
Bamini Gopinath ◽  
Jagnoor Jagnoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Injury Severity ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Road User ◽  
Inception Cohort ◽  
Post Injury ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
User Groups

Abstract Background Serious injuries and fatalities among vulnerable road users on two wheeled motorised vehicles have increased across Australia and internationally in the past decade yet fallen for motor vehicle occupants. Almost half of all reported motorcycle injury crashes cause serious injury or death, nearly double that of motor vehicle police-reported crashes. This study explores associations with sociodemographic and pre-injury health characteristics and health outcomes after a road traffic injury; aiming to compare motorcyclists with other road users and inform recovery care. Methods An inception cohort study recruited 1854 individuals aged > 17 years, injured following land-transport crashes in New South Wales, Australia (July 2013–November 2016). Interviews conducted at baseline, 6-and 12-months post-injury elicited demographic, socioeconomic, and self-reported health conditions. Results Primary analysis involved 1854 participants who were recruited at baseline as three distinct road user groups; 628 (33.9%) motorcyclists, 927 (50%) vehicle occupants and 299 (16.1%) bicyclists. At baseline, injury patterns differed significantly between road user groups; motorcyclists were more than twice as likely to sustain lower extremity injury (p < 0.001); to have more severe injury severity scores (p < 0.001) and longer hospital stays versus vs vehicle occupants and bicyclists (< 0.001) across these measures. Injured motorcyclists were predominantly male (88.1%, p < 0.001), were younger on average (38 years) than bicyclists (41.5 years), had lower income and education levels, and poorer pre-injury physical health than other road user groups. Despite these differences, at 12 months post-injury motorcyclists had better physical health (SF12-PCS 2.07 (0.77, 3.36), p = 0.002) and reported lower pain scores (− 0.51 (− 0.83, − 0.2), p < 0.001) than vehicle occupants. Motorcyclists displayed less evidence of psychological distress than vehicle occupants, but more than bicyclists across several measures used. Conclusions Road user types differ in important characteristics, including pre-injury health status and recovery after injury. As vulnerable road users experiencing transport crash and considering their higher initial injury severity, the degree of recovery among motorcyclists compared with other user types is remarkable and unexplained. Health and recovery outcomes after land-transport crashes is least favourable among vehicle occupants despite their higher levels of protection in a crash. This information is valuable for targeting early intervention strategies by road user type during the post-crash care phase, to improve long-term recovery.

scholarly journals Comparison of physical and psychological health outcomes for motorcyclists and other road users after land transport crashes: an inception cohort study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Sharwood ◽  
Annette Kifley ◽  
Ashley Craig ◽  
Bamini Gopinath ◽  
Jagnoor Jagnoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Road User ◽  
Inception Cohort ◽  
Post Injury ◽  
Road Users

Abstract Background: Serious injuries and fatalities among vulnerable road users on two wheeled motorised vehicles have increased across Australia and internationally in the past decade, yet fallen for motor vehicle occupants. Almost half of all reported motorcycle injury crashes cause serious injury or death, nearly double that of motor vehicle police-reported crashes. This study explores associations with sociodemographic and pre-injury health characteristics and health outcomes after a road traffic injury; aiming to compare motorcyclists with other road users and inform recovery care. Methods: An inception cohort study recruited 1854 individuals aged >17 years, injured following land-transport crashes in New South Wales, Australia (July 2013-November 2016). Interviews conducted at baseline, 6-and 12-months post-injury elicited demographic, socioeconomic, and self-reported health conditions. Results: 628 (33.9%) motorcyclists, 299 (16.1%) bicyclists and 927 (50%) vehicle occupants were recruited at baseline. Injury patterns differed significantly between groups; motorcyclist injuries were more likely lower extremity, more severe (p<0.001) and result in longer hospital stays (p<0.001). Injured motorcyclists were predominantly male (88.1%, p<0.001), were younger on average (38 years) than bicyclists (41.5 years), had lower income and education levels, and poorer pre-injury physical health than other road user groups. Despite these differences, at 12 months post-injury motorcyclists had better physical health and reported less pain than vehicle occupants. Motorcyclists displayed less evidence of psychological distress than vehicle occupants, but more than bicyclists across several measures used. Conclusions: Road user types differ in important characteristics, including pre-injury health status and recovery after injury, which influences health and recovery outcomes after land-transport crashes. This information could aid post-crash care, such as targeting early intervention strategies not only to injury types, but also to the type of road user, to improve long-term recovery.

scholarly journals Factors influencing social and health outcomes after motor vehicle crash injury: an inception cohort study protocol

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagnoor Jagnoor ◽  
Fiona Blyth ◽  
Belinda Gabbe ◽  
Sarah Derrett ◽  
Soufiane Boufous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Study Protocol ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Motor Vehicle Crash ◽  
Inception Cohort ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Vehicle Crash

scholarly journals Impacts of injury severity on long-term outcomes following motor vehicle crashes

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin K. C. Hung ◽  
◽  
Annette Kifley ◽  
Katherine Brown ◽  
Jagnoor Jagnoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Injury Severity ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Hospital Length ◽  
Hospital Length Of Stay ◽  
Severe Injury ◽  
Post Injury ◽  
Severe Injuries

Abstract Background There is growing evidence that a range of pre-injury, injury related and post-injury factors influence social and health outcomes across the injury severity spectrum. This paper documents health related outcomes for people with mild, moderate and severe injury after motor vehicle crash (MVC) injuries in New South Wales, Australia. Methods This inception cohort study followed 2019 people injured in MVCs, for 6 and 12 months post-injury. We categorised moderate injury as hospital length-of-stay (LOS) of 2–6 days and Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 4–11, while severe injury as LOS ≥7 days or ISS ≥ 12. We examined differences in paid work status, 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF12), EQ-5D and World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS) outcomes longitudinally from baseline to 12 months between levels of injury severity using linear mixed models for repeated measures. We first considered minimally sufficient adjustment factors (age, sex, crash role, perceived danger in crash, pre-injury health, pre-injury EQ-5D, recruitment source), and then more extensive adjustments including post-injury factors. The presence of mediating pathways for SF-12 Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) via post-injury factors was evaluated. Results Based on hospital length of stay (LOS), 25 and 10% of participants sustained moderate and severe injuries, respectively, while 43 and 4% had these injuries based on ISS. Twelve months post-injury LOS ≥7 days versus ≤1 day was associated with an estimated 9 units lower mean SF12 PCS using a minimally sufficient adjustment model, and LOS ≥ 7 days was associated with a 3 units lower mean SF12 MCS score. Mediation analyses (LOS ≥ 7 days vs ≤1 day) found for SF12 MCS outcomes, effects of injury severity were small and mostly indirect (direct effect − 0.03, indirect effect − 0.22). Whereas for SF12 PCS outcomes the effect of having a more severe injury rather than mild were both direct and indirect (direct effect − 0.50, indirect effect − 0.38). Conclusions Individuals with severe injuries (those with LOS ≥ 7 days and ISS 12+) had poorer recovery 12 months after the injury. In addition, post-injury mediators have an important role in influencing long-term health outcomes. Trial registration Australia New Zealand Clinical trial registry identification number - ACTRN12613000889752.

scholarly journals A Rare Event Modelling Approach to Assess Injury Severity Risk of Vulnerable Road Users

Safety ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Vilaça ◽  
Eloísa Macedo ◽  
Margarida C. Coelho
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Injury Severity ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Rare Event ◽  
Motor Vehicle Crash ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
The One

Vulnerable road users (VRUs) represent a large portion of fatalities and injuries occurring on European Union roads. It is therefore important to address the safety of VRUs, particularly in urban areas, by identifying which factors may affect the injury severity level that can be used to develop countermeasures. This paper aims to identify the risk factors that affect the severity of a VRU injured when involved in a motor vehicle crash. For that purpose, a comparative evaluation of two machine learning classifiers—decision tree and logistic regression—considering three different resampling techniques (under-, over- and synthetic oversampling) is presented, comparing both imbalanced and balanced datasets. Crash data records were analyzed involving VRUs from three different cities in Portugal and six years (2012–2017). The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that oversampling techniques improve the ability of the classifiers to identify risk factors. On the one hand, this analysis revealed that road markings, road conditions and luminosity affect the injury severity of a pedestrian. On the other hand, age group and temporal variables (month, weekday and time period) showed to be relevant to predict the severity of a cyclist injury when involved in a crash.

scholarly journals Autonomous Vehicles and Vulnerable Road-Users—Important Considerations and Requirements Based on Crash Data from Two Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Andrew Paul Morris ◽  
Narelle Haworth ◽  
Ashleigh Filtness ◽  
Daryl-Palma Asongu Nguatem ◽  
Laurie Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Road User ◽  
Red Light Running ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Passenger Vehicles ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road User ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
Road Intersections

(1) Background: Passenger vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) functionalities are becoming more prevalent within vehicle fleets. However, the full effects of offering such systems, which may allow for drivers to become less than 100% engaged with the task of driving, may have detrimental impacts on other road-users, particularly vulnerable road-users, for a variety of reasons. (2) Crash data were analysed in two countries (Great Britain and Australia) to examine some challenging traffic scenarios that are prevalent in both countries and represent scenarios in which future connected and autonomous vehicles may be challenged in terms of safe manoeuvring. (3) Road intersections are currently very common locations for vulnerable road-user accidents; traffic flows and road-user behaviours at intersections can be unpredictable, with many vehicles behaving inconsistently (e.g., red-light running and failure to stop or give way), and many vulnerable road-users taking unforeseen risks. (4) Conclusions: The challenges of unpredictable vulnerable road-user behaviour at intersections (including road-users violating traffic or safe-crossing signals, or taking other risks) combined with the lack of knowledge of CAV responses to intersection rules, could be problematic. This could be further compounded by changes to nonverbal communication that currently exist between road-users, which could become more challenging once CAVs become more widespread.

Comparison of epidemiology and injury profile between vulnerable road users and motor vehicle occupants in road traffic fatalities

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 581-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-Chul Kim ◽  
Hae-Ju Lee ◽  
Ji-Min Kim ◽  
So-Yeon Kong ◽  
Jung-Soo Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Traffic Fatalities ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users

scholarly journals Method to Assess and Enhance Vulnerable Road User Safety during Impact Loading

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Ptak
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Head Injuries ◽  
Road User ◽  
Road Accidents ◽  
Safety Requirements ◽  
Interesting Insight ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road User ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users

Every year approximately 1.35 million people die as a consequence of road accidents. Almost 50% of road fatalities are vulnerable road users (VRUs). This research reviews the history of traffic safety for VRUs, presents an interesting insight into the statistics and evaluates the current legislation in Europe for pedestrians, cyclists, children on bicycle-mounted seats and motorcyclists in terms of impact situations and applied criteria. This enabled the author to have a better perspective on how the VRUs’ safety is currently verified. Furthermore, the VRU safety requirements are contrasted with the author’s research, which is mainly focused on VRU’s head biomechanics and kinematics. Finally, a new coherent method is presented, which encompasses the sub-groups of VRUs and proposes some improvements to both the regulations as well as technical countermeasures to mitigate the injuries during an impact. This study highlights the importance of numerical methods, which can serve as a powerful tool to study VRUs’ head injuries and kinematics.

scholarly journals Does a “Cushion Effect” Really Exist? A Morphomic Analysis of Vulnerable Road Users with Serious Blunt Abdominal Injury

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1006
Author(s):  
Yu-San Tee ◽  
Chi-Tung Cheng ◽  
Chi-Hsun Hsieh ◽  
Shih-Ching Kang ◽  
Chih-Yuan Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Visceral Fat ◽  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Subcutaneous Fat ◽  
Abdominal Injury ◽  
Visceral Fat Area ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Severity Of Injury ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users

Introduction: The severity of injury from motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) depends on complex biomechanical factors, and the bodily features of the injured person account for some of these factors. By assuming that vulnerable road users (VRUs) have limited protection resulting from vehicles and safety equipment, the current study analyzed the characteristics of fat distribution measured by computed tomography (CT) imaging and investigated the existence of a “cushion effect” in VRUs. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 592 VRUs involved in MVCs who underwent CT scans. Visceral fat area and subcutaneous fat cross-sectional area were measured and adjusted according to total body area (TBA) and are presented as the visceral fat ratio and the subQ fat ratio (subcutaneous fat ratio). Risk factors for serious abdominal injury (maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAISabd ≥ 3)) resulting from MVCs were determined by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: MAISabd ≥ 3 was observed in 104 (17.6%) of the patients. The subQ fat ratio at the L4 vertebral level was significantly lower in the MAISabd ≥ 3 group than in the MAISabd < 3 group (24.9 ± 12.0 vs. 28.1 ± 11.9%; p = 0.015). A decreased L4 subQ fat ratio was associated with a higher risk for MAISabd ≥ 3 in multivariate analysis (odds ratio 0.063; 95% CI 0.008–0.509; p = 0.009). Conclusion: The current study supported the “cushion effect” theory, and protection was apparently provided by subcutaneous fat tissue. This concept may further improve vehicle and safety designation in the future.

scholarly journals Vehicle-to-Pedestrian Communication for Vulnerable Road Users: Survey, Design Considerations, and Challenges

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parag Sewalkar ◽  
Jochen Seitz
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Road User ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Design Considerations ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Vulnerable Road User ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users

In the last few years, increasing attention has been provided to research Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) communication systems. These V2P systems serve different purposes (safety or convenience) and cater to different Vulnerable Road User (VRU) groups. Also, these V2P systems employ different communication technologies, and use different mechanisms to interact with the users. An effective V2P system also needs to consider varying characteristics of different VRUs. These various elements may be considered as design parameters of the V2P system. In this paper, we discuss such elements and propose a design framework for the V2P system based on them. We also provide an extensive survey of existing V2P efforts for safety and convenience applications and their design considerations. We perform a case study that compares the different approaches of V2P safety system for different VRU groups under different pre-crash scenarios. Finally, we discuss a few technological challenges in integration of VRUs into V2X systems.

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