OBJECTIVE: Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is a standard feature on most modern cars, due to its reported efficiency to reduce the number of crashes of several types. However, empirical studies of safety effects of ESC for passenger vehicles have not considered some methodological problems that might have inflated the effects. This includes self-selection of drivers who buy/use ESC and behavioral adaptation to the system over long time periods, but also the dominant method of induced exposure. This study aimed to investigate whether such methodological problems might have influenced the results.
METHODS: A meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate whether there are systematic differences between published studies. Moderators tested included when the study was undertaken, the type of vehicle studied, the percent ESC in the sample, size of sample, the length of the study, whether matched or un-matched vehicles were studied, whether induced exposure was used, and two variants of types of crashes used as controls.
RESULTS: The effects found ranged from 38% to 75% reduction of crashes for the main targets of singles, running off road and rollover crashes. However, these effects were heterogeneous, and differed depending on the methods used. Most importantly, information that could have allowed more precise analyses of the moderators were missing in most publications.
CONCLUSIONS: Although average effects were large and in agreement with previous meta-analyses, heterogeneity of the data was large, and lack of information about important moderators means that firm conclusions about what kind of mechanisms were influencing the effects cannot be drawn. The available data on ESC efficiency are not unanimous, and further investigations into the effects of ESC on safety using different methodologies are warranted.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic and biomechanical response of the pelvis and thoracolumbar spine in simulated under-body blast (UBB) impacts and design of protective seat cushion for thoracolumbar spine injuries. Methods: A whole-body FE (finite element) human body model in the anthropometry of Chinese 50th% adult male (named as C-HBM) was validated against existing PHMS (Postmortem Human Subjects) test data and employed to understand the dynamic and biomechanical response of the pelvis and thoracolumbar spine from FE simulations of UBB impacts. Then, the protective capability of different seat cushion designs for UBB pelvis and thoracolumbar injury risk was compared based on the predictions of the C-HBM. Results: The predicted spinal accelerations from the C-HUM are almost within the PHMS corridors. UBB impact combined with the effects from physiological curve of the human thoracolumbar spine and torso inertia leads to thoracolumbar spine anterior bending and axial compression, which results in stress concentration in the segments of T4-T8, T12-L1 and L4-L5. Foam seat cushion can effectively reduce the risk of thoracolumbar spine injury of armored vehicle occupants in UBB impacts, and the DO3 foam has better protective performance than ordinary foam, the 60 mm thick DO3 foam could reduce pelvic acceleration peak and DRIz value by 52.8% and 17.2%, respectively. Conclusions: UBB spinal injury risk is sensitive to the input load level, but reducing the pelvic acceleration peak only is not enough for protection of spinal UBB injury risk, control of torso inertia effect would be much helpful.

Using data from the 2022 Korea Community Health Survey (n = 13 320), this study investigated helmet use and related factors among Korean adults using personal mobility devices, without distinguishing between private and hired users. Among mobility device users, 32.1% responded that they always wore a helmet. The proportion of helmet use was 35.2% among men, 25.8% among women, 29.2% among those aged 19-44 years, 42.3% among those aged 45-64 years and 26.6% among those aged 65 years or older. Furthermore, those who drank less frequently and were physically active were more likely to wear helmets. Moreover, people who always wore a seat belt when driving a car or sitting in the rear seat and people who always wore a helmet when riding a motorcycle were more likely to wear a helmet while using electric personal mobility devices. Approximately one-third of users always wore a helmet. The helmet-wearing rate was related to general characteristics such as gender and education level, and to safety behaviors such as wearing a seat belt when driving a car, sitting in the rear seat of a car, or when riding a motorcycle. In addition to considering personal characteristics investigated in this study, the helmet-wearing rate should be improved through policies or systems at the national or regional levels.

BACKGROUND: Wearing hip protectors is a measure used to prevent hip fractures caused by falls. However, its protective effect has remained controversial in previous studies. This study provides a rationale for the use of hip protectors by pooling all the current meta-analysis evidence.
METHODS: We conducted an umbrella review of all the current meta-analysis articles about the efficacy of hip protectors to reduce hip fractures and falls in communities and/or institutions. Major databases including EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PubMed and Web of Science, were searched up to June 2022. Two reviewers screened the studies, extracted the data, and conducted the methodological quality assessment independently. The primary outcome was the association statistic (odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR), etc.) reported in the meta-analysis that quantified the influence of the intervention on hip fractures and falls compared to that of the control group. Narrative synthesis was also conducted. Forest plots and the AMSTAR score were used to describe the results and quality of the pooled literature, respectively.
RESULTS: A total of six meta-analysis articles were included in the study. Hip protectors were effective at reducing hip fractures in older individuals who were in institutions (nursing or residential care settings) but not in communities (RR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.85, I2 = 42%, P < 0.001) (RR = 1.12, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.34, I2 = 0%, P = 0.20), and they did not reduce falls (RR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.13, I2 = 0%, P = 0.89).
CONCLUSIONS: Hip protectors are effective at preventing hip fractures in institutionalized older adults but not in community-dwelling older adults.
BACKGROUND: This study has been registered in PROSPERO (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022351773).

UNASSIGNED: Publicizing safety ratings of vehicles can motivate manufacturers to prioritize safety and help consumers choose safer vehicles, leading to safer fleets. The benefits of primary safety technologies that prevent crash occurrence are not currently incorporated in current ratings in a way that values their safety benefits consistently. We aimed to propose a method for assigning weights for each safety technology to account for established safety benefits using published effectiveness and prevalence from real-life data.
UNASSIGNED: To illustrate this method, we present a worked example calculated using crash and injury data from Australia and New Zealand. The method proposed attenuates the weights for given safety technologies where two or more safety technologies fitted to the same vehicle are effective for the same types of crashes.
UNASSIGNED: In the worked example using Australasian data, large SUVs were estimated to have the largest safety increment from the fitment of all the technologies considered compared to vehicles without these primary safety technologies, with an almost 17% reduction in crash occurrence. Cars with all the technologies fitted had estimated average crash reduction of between 11% and 12%.
UNASSIGNED: Different market groups have different crash patterns, so the safety attributable to safety technology fitment differs at the market group level. This study presents an approach for providing a summary measure of crash avoidance according to the fitment of safety technologies. If this measure is combined with an estimate of secondary safety (whether derived from existing crash and injury data or from new car crash assessment programs), the combined estimate then represents the important elements of safety provided by the vehicle. The methods presented here form a rational basis for assigning safety ratings to represent the benefits of swiftly developing safety technologies.

Modern vehicles are vulnerable to cyberattacks and the consequences can be severe. While technological efforts have attempted to address the problem, the role of human drivers is understudied. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of training and warning systems on drivers\' response behavior to vehicle cyberattacks. Thirty-two participants completed a driving simulator study to assess the effectiveness of training and warning system according to their velocity, deceleration events, and count of cautionary behaviors. Participants, who held a valid United States driving license and had a mean age of 20.4 years old, were equally assigned to one of four groups: control (n = 8), training-only (n = 8), warning-only (n = 8), training and warning groups (n = 8). For each drive, mixed ANOVAs were implemented on the velocity variables and Poisson regression was conducted on the normalized time with large deceleration events and cautionary behavior variables. Overall, the results suggest that drivers\' response behaviors were moderately affected by the training programs and the warning messages. Most drivers who received training or warning messages responded safely and appropriately to cyberattacks, e.g., by slowing down, pulling over, or performing cautionary behaviors, but only in specific cyberattack events. Training programs show promise in improving drivers\' responses toward vehicle cyberattacks, and warning messages show rather moderate improvement but can be further refined to yield consistent behavior.

暂无摘要。

In Poland, there are numerous cases of injuries caused by sharp instruments annually, still significantly more than in other European Union countries. The aim of this study was to analyze work-related injuries among healthcare workers in a selected hospital before and after the implementation of safety-engineered devices (SED).
Retrospective analysis of medical documentation regarding occupational needlestick and sharps injuries (NSSI) in a tertiary referral surgical hospital in 1998-2018. The study group consisted of nurses and doctors who had been injured and reported the incident. The frequency of injury reports, injury rate, and characterization of circumstances surrounding NSSI are presented.
Over the period of 20 years, a total of 257 NSSI incidents were reported. The average injury rate was statistically significant for nurses (p = 0.004) and was higher before the introduction of SED. Moreover, the number of injuries among nurses showed a downward trend during the study period. However, for doctors, there was no statistically significant difference in the median puncture rate (p = 0.099), and the number of injuries showed an increasing trend.
In this study, the authors\' have demonstrated not only the occurrence of injuries and punctures in the daily work of medical personnel but also the potential for their reduction through the use of safety equipment at every workstation where healthcare services are provided using sharp medical instruments. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2024;37(2):234-43.

This paper presents an enhanced probabilistic approach to estimate the real-world safety performance of new device concepts for road safety applications from the perspective of Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) riders who suffer multiple injuries in different body regions. The proposed method estimates the overall effectiveness of safety devices for PTW riders by correlating computer simulations with various levels of actual injuries collected worldwide from accident databases. The study further develops the methodology initially presented by Johnny Korner in 1989 by introducing a new indicator, Global Potential Damage (GPD), that overcomes the limitations of the original method, encompassing six biomechanical injury indices estimated in five body regions. A Weibull regression model was fit to the field data using the Maximum Likelihood Method with boundaries at the 90% confidence level for the construction of novel injury risk curves for PTW riders. The modified methodology was applied for the holistic evaluation of the effectiveness of a new safety system, the Belted Safety Jacket (BSJ), in head-on collisions across multiple injury indices, body regions, vehicle types, and speed pairs without sub-optimizing it at specific crash severities. A virtual multi-body environment was employed to reproduce a selected set of crashes. The BSJ is a device concept comprising a vest with safety belts to restrict the rider\'s movements relative to the PTW during crashes. The BSJ exhibited 59% effectiveness, with an undoubted benefit to the head, neck, chest, and lower extremities. The results show that the proposed methodology enables an overall assessment of the injuries, thus improving the protection of PTW users. The novel indicator supports a robust evaluation of safety systems, specifically relevant in the context of PTW accidents.

UNASSIGNED: Mountain highways are linearly complex, with extensive curves and high accident injury rates, how to improve driving safety is the key to traffic safety management on mountain highways, and it also meets the need for harmonious and sustainable development of the society. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of different guardrail color configurations on the driving behavior of different styles of drivers when driving on mountainous curves from the perspective of improving road aids - guardrails.
UNASSIGNED: A virtual reality experiment was designed using a driving simulator and VR technology, and 64 subjects were recruited to participate and complete the experiment.
UNASSIGNED: Drivers with non-adaptive driving styles (Reckless, Angry, Anxious) traveled at significantly higher speeds than subjects with adaptive driving styles (Cautious) on mountainous roads; drivers with Cautious styles had better lane-keeping ability when passing through different radii of curves as compared to non-adaptive drivers; and the red and yellow guardrails were more effective in decreasing the speeds at which drivers passed and in increasing the stability of lane-keeping.
UNASSIGNED: The results of the study show that the effectiveness of red and yellow guardrails is better, which provides a reference for the traffic management department to propose a standardized color setting of guardrails in mountainous areas, which is conducive to the development of more precise traffic management measures to reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents.