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1 – 10 of over 2000Thomas M. Rice, Lara Troszak and Bryon G. Gustafson
Concerns about the risk of traffic collision injury to both police officers and bystanders are increasing as the use of in-vehicle technologies becoming widespread among agencies…
Abstract
Purpose
Concerns about the risk of traffic collision injury to both police officers and bystanders are increasing as the use of in-vehicle technologies becoming widespread among agencies. This study used national and California data to characterize traffic collisions in which a police vehicle was involved. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a California traffic collision database to retrospectively identify collisions that involved police vehicles for years 2007-2010. The authors summarized collision characteristics with descriptive methods and used log-binomial regression to estimate associations between personal and collision characteristics with officer culpability.
Findings
The authors identified 5,233 traffic collisions in California. In total, 10 percent of law enforcement vehicles were motorcycles. In all, 9 percent of cruisers struck a pedestrian or bicyclist, compared with only 2 percent of motorcycles. Compared with officers aged 50 or older, officers in younger age categories were progressively much more likely to have been culpable. Motorcycle officers were 33 percent less likely to be culpable for their collision involvements. Approximately 100 fatal collisions involving a law enforcement vehicle occur each year in the USA.
Originality/value
The findings from this study indicate that approximately 1,300 injury-producing traffic collisions occur each year in California that involve a law enforcement vehicle. The authors found that younger age, female sex, cruiser operation, traveling unbelted, and single-vehicle collision involvement were positively associated with officer culpability. Officer race and community population were not significantly associated with culpability. The occurrence of fatal collisions in the USA was stable over a 12-year period.
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Scott E. Wolfe, Jeff Rojek, Geoff Alpert, Hope M. Tiesman and Stephen M. James
The purpose of this paper is to examine the situational and individual officer characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions that result in fatality, injury, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the situational and individual officer characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions that result in fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on 35,840 vehicle collisions involving law enforcement officers in California occurring between January 2000 and December 2009 are examined. A descriptive analysis of collision characteristics is presented.
Findings
There were 39 officers killed by collisions over this study period and 7,684 officers who received some type injury. Incidents involving officers on motorcycles represented 39 percent of officer fatalities and 39 percent of severe injuries. In the case of fatalities, 33 percent of officers were reported as wearing seatbelts, 38 percent were not wearing a seatbelt, and seatbelt use was not stated in 29 percent of car fatalities.
Research limitations/implications
The findings only represent one state and the analysis is based on an estimated 86 percent of collisions that occurred during the study period due to missing data. Nonetheless, the results are based on a robust sample and address key limitations in the existing literature.
Practical implications
During the study period in California the estimated financial impact of collisions reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars when considering related fatality, injury, and vehicle damage costs combined. These impacts highlight the need for the law enforcement community to give greater attention to this issue.
Originality/value
At the time of this writing there was no published independent research that compares the situational and officer characteristics across fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes in these events. The findings reported here will help inform emerging interest in this issue within the law enforcement, academic, and policy-making communities.
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Chen Chai, Ziyao Zhou, Weiru Yin, David S. Hurwitz and Siyang Zhang
The presentation of in-vehicle warnings information at risky driving scenarios is aimed to improve the collision avoidance ability of drivers. Existing studies have found that…
Abstract
Purpose
The presentation of in-vehicle warnings information at risky driving scenarios is aimed to improve the collision avoidance ability of drivers. Existing studies have found that driver’s collision avoidance performance is affected by both warning information and driver’s workload. However, whether moderation and mediation effects exist among warning information, driver’s cognition, behavior and risky avoidance performance is unclear.
Design/methodology/approach
This purpose of this study is to examine whether the warning information type modifies the relationship between the forward collision risk and collision avoidance behavior. A driving simulator experiment was conducted with waring and command information.
Findings
Results of 30 participants indicated that command information improves collision avoidance behavior more than notification warning under the forward collision risky driving scenario. The primary reason for this is that collision avoidance behavior can be negatively affected by the forward collision risk. At the same time, command information can weaken this negative effect. Moreover, improved collision avoidance behavior can be achieved through increasing drivers’ mental workload.
Practical implications
The proposed model provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing collision avoidance behavior, thus contributing to improved in-vehicle information system design.
Originality/value
The significant moderation effects evoke the fact that information types and mental workloads are critical in improving drivers’ collision avoidance ability. Through further calibration with larger sample size, the proposed structural model can be used to predict the effect of in-vehicle warnings in different risky driving scenarios.
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J. Andrew Hansen, Jeff Rojek, Scott E. Wolfe and Geoffrey P. Alpert
Little is known regarding the impact of organizational policies and practices on police officers’ driving behaviors. To address an important gap in the empirical literature, this…
Abstract
Purpose
Little is known regarding the impact of organizational policies and practices on police officers’ driving behaviors. To address an important gap in the empirical literature, this study examined how perceived likelihood of discipline for violations of agency driving policies impacted officer-involved vehicle collisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys were distributed to patrol officers and their supervisors in eight California law enforcement agencies. The surveys elicited information regarding the perceived likelihood of discipline for violations of agency driving policies regarding cell phone use, text messaging, seatbelt use, speeding, and vehicle operations during emergency and pursuit situations.
Findings
The findings demonstrated a significant impact of perceived likelihood of enforcement for some but not all agency driving policies on officer-involved vehicle collisions.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to self-reported data from patrol officers and their supervisors in eight California agencies.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that agencies may reduce officer injuries and other costs by increasing supervision and enforcement of agency driving policies.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the extant body of literature on officer-involved vehicle collisions by considering the impact of agency policy and supervision on officer behavior.
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Zobair Ibn Awal, M. Rafiqul Islam and Mazharul Hoque
This paper aims to investigate the marine vehicle accident characteristics in the inland waterways of Bangladesh, with particular emphasis on collision type accidents.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the marine vehicle accident characteristics in the inland waterways of Bangladesh, with particular emphasis on collision type accidents.
Design/methodology/approach
Accident data were collected from different sources such as the daily newspapers, reports of Department of Shipping (DOS) and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). The accidents are analysed according to different variables such as vehicle type, time distribution, spatial distribution, weather condition, nature of casualties, and others.
Findings
The study revealed that the leading causes of accidents were collision between ships, trawlers and country boats and loss of stability due to Nor'wester (a seasonal storm that appears from the north and western directions). Of the accidents, 80 per cent involve cargo vehicles hitting other vehicles. Collisions have increased dramatically over the last decade and the number of fatalities has increased significantly.
Research limitations/implications
Many accidents in Bangladesh often remain under‐reported owing to limited exposure to the media, which is probably because the victims represent the poorer segment of society. This under‐reporting appears to be a major barrier for accident analysis and prevention.
Originality/value
The paper provides an explicit idea on the characteristics of accidents, so that the problem can be easily comprehended and necessary action can be taken by different stakeholders, such as operators, law enforcement agencies, designers, users and others concerned in order to come up with a coordinated action plan to stop these severe incidents.
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Purpose – This chapter overviews surrogate measures of safety to help better understand the related challenges and opportunities. The chapter is meant to serve as a primer for…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter overviews surrogate measures of safety to help better understand the related challenges and opportunities. The chapter is meant to serve as a primer for practitioners looking for alternative methods of evaluating safety where crashes are lacking or are insufficient.
Approach – The historical perspective and the current state-of-the-art thinking are presented in an organised manner with a focus on fundamental concepts, traffic measurement techniques and estimation of the relationships between surrogate events and collisions.
Findings – An analysis of the published research and its findings indicates that traffic conflicts are the most promising surrogates. They enable evaluation of the safety implications of a wide range of road and traffic conditions. The required ecological consistency between conflicts and collisions can be ensured by sufficient nearness of conflicts to collisions. Several methods of estimating the relationship between conflicts and crashes are discussed. Behavioural measures of safety are also discussed. Although easier to measure than conflicts, behavioural measures should be used with caution. Research on surrogate measures of safety may provide a basis for improving microsimulation models as tools of safety evaluation.
Practical implications – Current changes in vehicle and road instrumentation affect safety at a rate that exceeds the efficiency of the traditional crash-based methods of safety analysis. Accurate and quick measurement of safety with surrogate measures offers a viable solution. They are also a necessary condition of gaining a better understanding of safety and finding more effective solutions for safety problems.
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