▪ Abstract Strategies to achieve ambitious targets for reducing road accidents (34) have largely focused on engineering and technological advancements, the modification of occupational demands, and, to a lesser extent, human factors. These factors include stress and psychological states; sleep, fatigue, and alertness; and health status. Physical activity appears to influence all these human factors but has not previously been systematically considered as a direct or indirect risk factor for driver accidents. This chapter provides an overview, within an evidence-based framework, of the impact each of these human factors has on driver performance and risk of at-work road traffic accidents and then examines how physical (in)activity may moderate and mediate these relationships. Finally, we consider practical implications for work site interventions. The review aims to offer an evidence base for the deployment of resources to promote physical activity, manage stress, facilitate sleep, reduce fatigue, and enha...

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STRESS, FATIGUE, HEALTH, AND RISK OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AMONG PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS: The Contribution of Physical Inactivity

Objective: To critically appraise the published evidence for risk factors for injuries and deaths relating to workrelated road traffic crashes. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Electronic databases searched included Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Transport database, and the Australian Transport and Road Index (ATRI) database. Additional searches included websites of relevant organizations, reference lists of included studies, and issues of major injury journals published within the past 5 years. Inclusion criteria: Studies were included if they investigated work-related traffic crashes or related injuries or deaths as the outcome, measured any potential risk factor for work-related road traffic crash as an exposure, included a relevant comparison group, and were written in English. Methods: Included studies were critically appraised using the GATE-lite critical appraisal form (www.epiq.co.nz). Meta-analysis was not attempted because of the heterogeneity of the included studies. Findings: Of 25 studies identified, three of four robust (case–control and case-crossover) studies found an increased injury risk (i) among workers after extended shifts, (ii) for tractor-trailers with brake and steering defects, and (iii) for ‘‘double configuration’’ trucks. The fourth study showed that alcohol and drug use were not risk factors in an industry with a random testing policy. The best cross-sectional studies showed associations between injury and sleepiness, time spent driving, occupational stress, non-insulin-dependent uncomplicated diabetes, and use of narcotics and antihistamines. Conclusions: Modifiable behavioral and vehicle-related risk factors are likely to contribute to work-related traffic injury. Fatigue and sleepiness—the most commonly researched topics—were consistently associated with increased risk.

A systematic review of epidemiological studies investigating risk factors for work-related road traffic crashes and injuries

This report contains the findings of a study to explore and quantify the interacting influences which determine motorcyclist accident liabilities. It was conducted on behalf of Road Safety Division, Department for Transport. The study first reviewed existing data sources to investigate the trends in motorcycling accidents over the last decade or so. The main part of the study was to carry out a survey of nearly 30,000 current motorcyclists in order to explore the relationship between accident risk and variables such as annual mileage, age, experience, journey type, training, personal characteristics of the riders, and the self-reported behaviours and attitudes of the riders. The numbers of accidents reported by riders within the past 12-months of riding were modelled using generalised linear techniques to take into account factors such as mileage, age, experience, bike size and the conditions prevailing when they rode. Models of rider behaviour were developed using other statistical modelling techniques. These models investigated how attitudes/motivations/perceptions and rider style influence rider behaviour, and how rider behaviour influences the likelihood of accident involvement. The influence of age, sex and experience on attitudes and behaviours, and as direct or indirect influences on accidents were also investigated. Accident risk was also directly influenced by the number of miles ridden in the past 12-months. The report makes a number of recommendations for improving the safety of motorcycle riders.

The accident risk of motorcyclists

The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire as accident predictor; A methodological re-meta-analysis

A comprehensive conceptual framework for road safety strategies.

TRL was commissioned in 2001 to carry out research into the question of whether people driving for work-related purposes might be at greater risk than other drivers of being involved in an injury accident. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of drivers of vehicles up to three years old identified from police reports of accidents that involved personal injury. It was also sent to a general sample of drivers of vehicles up to three years old. This included drivers of company-registered vehicles and drivers of privately registered vehicles (both of which may or may not do work-related mileage). This methodology allowed, for the first time, the excess risk of injury accidents arising from work-related driving to be estimated. Previous studies have only been able to estimate the excess liability or work-related drivers to 'all accidents' - which are dominated by damage-only accidents. The results show that car drivers with more than 80 per cent of their annual mileage on work-related journeys had about 50 per cent more injury accidents than other car drivers who were otherwise similar in terms of age, sex and mileage. Drivers whose work-related journeys accounted for 80 per cent or less of their total mileage had, on average, about 13 per cent more accidents than otherwise similar drivers doing no work related mileage. Drivers whose work related journeys accounted for more than 80 per cent of their total mileage differed from other drivers in their responses to a number of behavioural questions. In particular they were more likely to drive when fatigued, under time pressure, and when conducting distracting in-car activities like mobile phone conversations. While such differences will increase the risk of work-related driving and thus help to explain its excess accident liability, in fact the survey was not able to demonstrate this directly. Neither did the survey find the expected associations between accident risk and violational driving behaviour, driving style, or attitudes to driving violations. One possible explanation discussed in the report is that drivers' responses were influenced by their having been recently involved in an injury accident, such that the responses did not give a true picture of behaviour and attitudes as they were before the occurrence of the accident. (A)

Work-related road accidents

An assessment of the injury accident risk of company drivers and personnel who do work-related driving in privately registered cars was undertaken. A representative sample of the whole population of drivers of cars up to three years old was compared with a sample of drivers from that population who are known to have been involved in an injury accident. The questionnaire include items on annual mileage, amount of driving done for work-related purposes, type of work-related driving, type of vehicle and whether the vehicle was provided by a company. It also included a number of attitudinal and behavioural items found in previous research to be related to accident risk. The company drivers had higher risk scores on eight of the factors investigated than the representative sample of dirvers. Drivers who did more than 80% of their mileage for work were estimated to have an injury accident risk 53% higher than for drivers who do no work mileage; this figure is derived after differences in age, gender, mileage, annual milaege and motorway mileage have been adjusted for statistically. Those drivers who had been involved in accidents had safer scores, possibly because they had been affected by the recent experience of an injury accident. The company drivers doing over 80% of their mileage for work were more likely to drive between 2pm and 5pm, using a hands-free mobile phone, drive while eating or drinking, drive when under time-pressure to reach a destination, drive on long journeys (more than 50 miles) after a full day's work and drive while searching for signs or directions. For the covering abstract see E124157.

C J Baughan

Papers

Work-related road accidents

Work-related road safety