Automobile safety

About: Automobile safety is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2714 publications have been published within this topic receiving 18122 citations.

The Perception of Risk

Abstract: Decision Processes, Rationality and Adjustment to Natural Hazards * Cognitive Processes and Societal Risk Taking * Preference for Insuring Against Probable Small Losses: Insurance Implications * Accident Probabilities and Seat Belt Usage: A Psychological Perspective * How Safe Is Safe Enough? A Psychometric Study of Attitudes Toward Technological Risks and Benefits * Rating the Risks * Weighing the Risks: Which Risks are Acceptable? * Facts and Fears: Understanding Perceived Risk * Response Mode, Framing and Information-processing Effects in Risk Assessment * The Nature of Technological Hazard * Informing and Educating the Public about Risk * Perception of Risk from Automobile Safety Defects * Perception of Risk * The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework * The Perception and Management of Therapeutic Risk * Perception of Risk from Radiation * Perceived Risk, Trust and the Politics of Nuclear Waste * Intuitive Toxicology: Expert and Lay Judgments of Chemical Risks * Perceived Risk, Trust and Democracy * Adolescent Health-threatening and Health-enhancing Behaviors: A Study of Word Association and Imagery * Technological Stigma * Probability, Danger and Coercion: A Study of Risk Perception and Decision-making in Mental Health Law * Do Adolescent Smokers Know the Risks? * Insensitivity to the Value of a Human Life: A Study of Psychophysical Numbing * Trust, Emotion, Sex, Politics and Science: Surveying the Risk-assessment Battlefield * The Affect Heuristic in Judgments of Risks and Benefits*

The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation

Abstract: Technological studies imply that annual highway deaths would be 20 percent greater without legally mandated installation of various safety devices on automobiles. However, this literature ignores o...

Driver Gaze Tracking and Eyes Off the Road Detection System

Abstract: Distracted driving is one of the main causes of vehicle collisions in the United States. Passively monitoring a driver's activities constitutes the basis of an automobile safety system that can potentially reduce the number of accidents by estimating the driver's focus of attention. This paper proposes an inexpensive vision-based system to accurately detect Eyes Off the Road (EOR). The system has three main components: 1) robust facial feature tracking; 2) head pose and gaze estimation; and 3) 3-D geometric reasoning to detect EOR. From the video stream of a camera installed on the steering wheel column, our system tracks facial features from the driver's face. Using the tracked landmarks and a 3-D face model, the system computes head pose and gaze direction. The head pose estimation algorithm is robust to nonrigid face deformations due to changes in expressions. Finally, using a 3-D geometric analysis, the system reliably detects EOR.

Impact tolerance and response of the human thorax II

Abstract: Previous studies of human thoracic injury tolerance and mechanical response to blunt, midsternal, anteroposterior impact loading were reported by the authors at the 1970 SAE International Automobile Safety Conference and at the Fifteenth Stapp Car Crash Conference. The present paper documents additional studies from this continuing research program and provides an expansion and refinement of the data base established by the earlier work. Twenty-three additional unembalmed cadavers were tested using basically the same equipment and procedures reported previously, but for which new combinations of impactor mass and velocity were used in addition to supplementing other data already presented. Specifically, the 43 lb/11 mph (19.5 kg/4.9m/s) and 51 lb/16 mph (23.1 kg/7.2 m/s) conditions were intercrossed and data obtain at 43 lb/14 mph (19.5 kg/7.2 m/s) and 51 lb/11 mph (23.1 kg/4.9 m/s). Several additional tests were run at 22 mph (9.8 m/s) and confirm a strong velocity sensitivity of the force response throughout the velocity range investigated. Also included are several tests in which the cadaver subjects were rigidly supported midsagittally along the spine to preclude whole body motion. Finally, the kinematics of thoracic compression under blunt, A-P impact have been demonstrated by high-speed cinematography of a thorax unilaterally denuded of skin and superficial tissues to enable visualization of the rib surfaces and intercostal musculature during loading. Response in terms of force-time histories and force versus deflection crossplots, and tolerance in terms of associated necropsy findings and AIS ratings, are presented for all tests. Correlations of the AIS rating with both maximum force and normalized chest deflection, several composite summary plots, and a general data tabulation are also included. /Author/

Videotape-based decision aid for colon cancer screening. A randomized, controlled trial.

Abstract: Background Rates of colon cancer screening in the United States are low, in part because of poor communication between patients and providers about the availability of effective screening options. Objective To test whether a decision aid consisting of an educational video, targeted brochure, and chart marker increased performance of colon cancer screening in primary care practices. Design Randomized, controlled trial. Setting Three community primary care practices in central North Carolina. Patients 1657 consecutive adult patients 50 to 75 years of age were contacted. Of these, 651 (39%) agreed to participate; 249 of the 651 participants (38%) were eligible. Eligible patients had no personal or family history of colon cancer and had not had fecal occult blood testing in the past year or flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, or barium enema in the past 5 years. Intervention The 249 participants were randomly assigned to view an 11-minute video about colon cancer screening (intervention group) or a video about automobile safety (control group). After viewing the video, intervention group participants chose a color-coded educational brochure (based on stages of change) to indicate their degree of interest in screening. A chart marker of the same color was attached to their charts. Controls received a generic brochure on automobile safety, and no chart marker was attached. Measurements Frequency of screening test ordering as reported by participants and frequency of completion of screening tests as verified by chart review. Results Fecal occult blood testing or flexible sigmoidoscopy was ordered for 47.2% of intervention participants and 26.4% of controls (difference, 20.8 percentage points [95% CI, 8.6 to 32.9 percentage points]). Screening tests were completed by 36.8% of the intervention group and 22.6% of the control group (difference, 14.2 percentage points [CI, 3.0 to 25.4 percentage points]). Conclusion A decision aid consisting of an educational video, brochure, and chart marker increased ordering and performance of colon cancer screening tests.