Ecuador is a country in South America, where, in 2021, there were 849,874 companies that had total sales of USD 105.23 billion, which had 2,698,650 workers. This study was carried out with the aim of ...analyzing occupational accidents by industry type in Ecuador, focusing mainly on the construction and manufacturing industries. The data were provided upon express request to the National Directorate of General Occupational Risk Insurance of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute. The data used in this study concerned accidents involving qualified workers affiliated with the Ecuadorian Social Security System. The data obtained were used to calculate the general accident rate, accident rate by sector, permanent disability rate, and mortality rate. Between 2016 and 2019, 6960 qualifying accidents occurred in Ecuador. Approximately 89.71 ± 0.36% of the accidents investigated involved men, and 50.28 ± 2.49% of these accidents caused permanent disability. The mortality rate was, on average, 10.60 ± 1.83%, 2018 being the year with the most deaths due to accidents at work. The Ecuadorian sector with the highest accident rate was the manufacturing industry with 26.15 ± 2.50%, followed by the construction industry with a rate of 17.47 ± 3.59%. The manufacturing industry had the highest rate, with a significant difference of accidents that resulted in permanent disability, with an average of 31.79 ± 2.85%, while the construction sector had the highest rate of fatal accidents, with an average of 25.82 ± 5.05%. This is the first study to report the number of qualified occupational accidents in Ecuador. With this study, a starting point is established for future analyses of the evolution of occupational accidents by type of industry in Ecuador. Future studies could determine the increase or decrease in the number of accidents, evaluate rates of permanent disability and death, and establish risk factors and preventive measures for each task or activity in all productive sectors.
Road traffic plays a vital role in countries’ economic growth and future development. However, traffic accidents are considered a major public health issue affecting humankind. Despite efforts by ...governments to improve traffic safety, the misalignment between the policy efforts and on-ground infringements, distractions and breaches reflect the regulatory failure. This paper uses the Bayesian network method to investigate unsafe behaviors and traffic accidents involving unlicensed drivers as a perspective for the regulatory alignment assessment. The findings suggest that: (1) unlicensed drivers are more likely to have unsafe driving behaviors; (2) the probability of being involved in a severe traffic accident increases when the drivers are unlicensed and decreases in the case of licensed drivers; (3) young drivers are noticeably more likely to engage in unsafe behaviors, usually leading to serious injuries and deaths, when their driving licenses are invalid; (4) women are more likely to engage in right-of-way violations and to have collisions with no serious injuries, contrary to unlicensed men drivers, who are involved in other types of traffic accidents resulting in serious injuries.
Background
About 1.35 million people died in traffic accidents around the world in 2018, make this type of accidents the 8th cause of death in the world. Particularly, in Spain, there were 204,596 ...traffic accidents during 2016 and 2017, out of which 349,810 drivers were injured. The objective of this study was to understand to what extent seat belt non-use and human factors contribute to drivers injury severity.
Methodology
The results are based on the information and 2016–17 data provided by the Spain national traffic department “Dirección General de Tráfico” (DGT). The discretization model and Bayesian Networks were developed based on important variables from the literature. These variables were classified as; human factor, demographic factor, conditioning factor and seat belt use.
Results
The results showed that failure to wear the seat belt by drivers are likely to increase the risk of fatal and sever injury significantly. Moreover, distraction and road type road can contribute to the accident severity.
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Road traffic accidents are currently between the seventh and tenth leading cause of death in the world, with approximately 1.35 million people killed per year. Despite extensive efforts by ...governments, according to the World Health Organization, road accidents still cause far too many deaths, especially among pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheel motor vehicle riders, who together account for almost 50% of road traffic fatalities. In particular, Spain had 410,974 traffic accidents between 2016 and 2019, involving 722,516 vehicles and 61,177 pedestrians with varying degrees of injury. This study uses the Bayesian network method to understand how the pedestrians’ responsibility and actions at the time of the traffic accident affect the injury suffered by said pedestrian, also considering the variables of the road infrastructure and vehicles at the accident site. The results confirm that the variables linked to the unsafe behavior of pedestrians, and their responsibility in traffic accidents, increase the risk of suffering serious or fatal injuries during an accident; for example, if a pedestrian is distracted this increases his/her probability of suffering a severe injury (27.86%) with respect to not being distracted (20.73%). Conditions related to traffic in high-speed areas, areas with no or poor lighting, and areas lacking sidewalks, also record increases in pedestrian injury, as is the case in the age group of pedestrians over 60 years of age.
Multitasking while driving negatively affects driving performance and threatens people’s lives every day. Moreover, technology-based distractions are among the top driving distractions that are ...proven to divert the driver’s attention away from the road and compromise their safety. This study employs recent data on road traffic accidents that occurred in Spain and uses a machine-learning algorithm to analyze, in the first place, the influence of technology-based distracted driving on drivers’ infractions considering the gender and age of the drivers and the zone and the type of vehicle. It assesses, in the second place, the impact of drivers’ infractions on the severity of traffic accidents. Findings show that (i) technology-based distractions are likely to increase the probability of committing aberrant infractions and speed infractions; (ii) technology-based distracted young drivers are more likely to speed and commit aberrant infractions; (iii) distracted motorcycles and squad riders are found more likely to speed; (iv) the probability of committing infractions by distracted drivers increases on streets and highways; and, finally, (v) drivers’ infractions lead to serious injuries.
This study aimed to investigate the sustainable use of recycled plastics, specifically polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), in the manufacture of geogrids for geotechnical and ...civil engineering applications. Plastics were collected from a recycling center, specifically targeting containers used for food, cleaning products, and other domestic packaging items. These plastics were sorted according to the Möbius triangle classification system, with HDPE (#2) and PP (#5) being the primary categories of interest. The research methodologically evaluates the mechanical properties of PP/HDPE (0/100, 25/75, 50/50, 75/25 and 100/0%
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) composites through tensile and flexural tests, exploring various compositions and configurations of geogrids. The results highlight the superiority of pure recycled HDPE processed into 1.3 mm thick laminated yarns and hot air welded for 20 to 30 s, exhibiting a deformation exceeding 60% in comparison to the PP/HDPE composites. Through SolidWorks
Simulation, it was shown that the adoption of a trigonal geogrid geometry optimizes force distribution and tensile strength, significantly improving slope stabilization efficiency. Based on the results obtained, a laboratory-scale prototype geogrid was developed using an extrusion process. The results underscore the importance of careful composite design and yarn configuration selection to achieve the desired mechanical properties and performance in geogrid applications. It emphasizes the potential of recycled plastics as a viable and environmentally friendly solution for stabilizing slopes, contributing to the reduction in plastic waste and promoting sustainable construction practices.
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Introduction. Road traffic injuries are now regarded as the eighth leading cause of death globally. For example, in 2016, 102,362 traffic injuries took place in Spain in which 174,679 drivers ...suffered injuries. These findings necessitated the development of the current study which focuses on the prime factors that cause this type of injuries. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore the behavioral factors that entail a higher risk of suffering either a serious or a fatal injury for drivers. Methods. The findings are based on information and data provided by “Dirección General de Tráfico” (DGT) in Spain on traffic injuries that occurred in the year 2016. Reviewing a wide range of the literature, the authors identified the most influential variables and created a model using the Bayesian networks. The variables that define the model are grouped into four factors: vehicle factor, road factor, circumstantial factor and human factor. Results. The results suggest that the principal variables that determine a higher probability of serious or fatal injuries in traffic injuries are: lack of using appropriate safety accessories, high-speed violations, distractions as well as errors. Finally, the research shows the severity probability based on reason of displacement (“in itinere,” on business, or in leisure).
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The main focus of this study was to investigate self-reported road traffic crashes (RTC) among drivers from Loja Ecuador and to illustrate the applicability of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) ...in detecting and representing typologies of individuals who have experienced an RTC as well as the typology of RTC events, upon information collected through a web-based survey carried in 2021. Overall, 754 drivers were investigated and we estimated a life prevalence (LP) of RTC of 41.5% (95% CI 36.9 to 46.2). Typology of drivers who reported involvement in an RTC is characterized by a predominance of people of 25 to 40 years of age, who drive mainly cars and frequently experience distraction and use of a mobile phone when driving. Additionally, MCA indicated two distinctive typologies of RTC events. One is characterized by collision vehicle-to-vehicle, due to behavioral factors, occurring at low-speed limit roads during the afternoon. The second one is characterized by collision vehicle-to-surrounding occurring at medium-speed limit roads during the evening and late evening. Our study revealed major determinants of RTC are modifiable behavioral factors and that MCA is both a valid exploratory tool to identify individual and event typologies of those under at most risk to suffer an RTC and a feasible technique to be implemented in low-income countries such as Ecuador.
The main focus of this study was to investigate self-reported road traffic crashes (RTC) among drivers from Loja, Ecuador, and to illustrate the applicability of multiple correspondence analysis ...(MCA) in detecting and representing typologies of individuals who have experienced an RTC as well as the typology of RTC events, upon information collected through a web-based survey carried in 2021. Overall, 754 drivers were investigated, and we estimated a life prevalence (LP) of RTC of 41.5% (95% CI 36.9 to 46.2). The typology of drivers who reported involvement in an RTC is characterized by a predominance of people between 25 to 40 years of age, who drive mainly cars and frequently experience distraction and use of a mobile phone when driving. Additionally, MCA indicated two distinctive typologies of RTC events. One is characterized by vehicle-to-vehicle collisions, due to behavioral factors, occurring at low-speed limit roads during the afternoon. The second one is characterized by collision with fixed objects or animals occurring at average-speed limit roads during the evening and late evening. Our study revealed major determinants of RTC are modifiable behavioral factors and that MCA is both a valid exploratory tool to identify individual and event typologies of under at most risk to suffer an RTC and a feasible technique to be implemented in low-income countries such as Ecuador.
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