: While advanced driver assistance technologies have the potential to increase safety, there is concern that driver inattention resulting from overreliance on these features may result in crashes. ...Driver monitoring technologies to assess a driver's state may be one solution. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend the research on physiological responses to common driving hazards and examine how these may differ based on driving experience.
: Learner and Licensed drivers viewed a Driving Hazard Perception Task while electrodermal activity (EDA) was measured. The task presented 30 Event (hazard develops) and 30 Non-Event (routine driving) videos. A skin conductance response (SCR) score was calculated for each participant based on the percentage of videos that elicited an SCR.
: Analysis of the SCR score during Event videos revealed a medium effect (
= 0.61) of group differences, whereby Licensed drivers were more likely to have an SCR than Learner drivers. Interaction effects revealed Licensed drivers were more likely to have an SCR earlier in the Event videos compared to the end, and the Learner drivers were more likely to have an SCR earlier in the Non-Event videos compared to the end.
: Our results support the viability of using SCR during driving videos as a marker of hazard anticipation differing based on experience. The interaction effects may illustrate situational awareness in licensed drivers and deficiencies in sustained vigilance among learner drivers. The findings demand further examination if physiological measures are to be validated as a tool to inform driver potential performance in an increasingly automated driving environment.
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States, and disproportionately impact communities of color. Replacing human control with automated vehicles (AVs) holds the potential ...to reduce crashes and save lives. The benefits of AVs, including automated shuttles, buses, or cars could extend beyond safety to include improvements in congestion, reductions in emissions, and increased access to mobility, particularly for vulnerable populations. However, AVs have not attained the level of public trust that has been expected, given their potential to save lives and increase access to mobility. Public opinion surveys have highlighted safety and security concerns as reasons for this lack of confidence. In this study, we present the findings of an experiment we conducted to actively shift mindsets on AVs toward advancing health equity. We demonstrate through a nationally representative sample of 2265 U.S. adults that the public support for AVs can be improved by expanding their scope of application to include advancing social benefit. The survey began with questions on respondent's support for AVs based on
knowledge and beliefs. Consistent with prior surveys, baseline support (strong support and some degree of support) was low at 26.4% (95% confidence interval 24.0-29.0). After introducing information about how AVs could be used to provide mobility for older adults, those with limited income, or the vision-impaired, respondents were asked to reassess their support for AVs. Support significantly increased to include the majority of respondents. By prioritizing the deployment of AVs to serve individuals and communities in greatest need of mobility, AVs would not only demonstrate compelling social value by reducing disparities but would also gain widespread public support among the U.S. public.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for young children. Millions of ridesharing trips are taken each day, and use of these services is predicted to increase. Therefore, it is ...important to examine the safety of children in these vehicles. We conducted a survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (N = 2017). Of the total sample, 450 respondents reported being a parent or legal guardian of children below the age of 10. Of these, 307 or 68% had ever used ridesharing. Among those who had used ridesharing, a total of 253 or 82% reported using ridesharing with their children below the age of 10 years. Among this group, rideshare use was significantly higher among individuals with college education, and in higher income households. Given that the majority of U.S. states have legislation exempting rideshare vehicles from child restraint system law coverage, our finding of high rates of rideshare use among parents suggests that a large number of children could be at risk of injury due to a lack of appropriate restraint use.
•Novice and experienced drivers rated event videos more hazardous than non-event videos.•Experienced drivers rated event videos as more hazardous than Novice drivers.•Group ratings differed according ...to characteristics of the event videos.•Naturalistic driving videos are viable stimuli for experimental studies.
Introduction: Novice drivers’ inability to appropriately anticipate and respond to hazards has been implicated in their elevated crash risk. Our goal was to develop a driving hazard prediction task using naturalistic videos from the U.S. context that could distinguish between novice and experienced drivers. Method: Using the query builder from the SHRP 2 InSight Data Access Website, we identified a sample of 1034 videos for further review. Task criteria reduced these to 30 videos of near-crash events that were split into event and non-event segments and were used to develop the driving hazard prediction task (task). Participants, aged 16–20 years-old (22 novice and 19 experienced drivers) completed the task during which they watched event and non-event videos and were asked, “How likely was the driver of this car to get into a crash?” after each video. Overall ratings for hazardousness were calculated for experienced and novice drivers as well as a group difference score for hazardousness. Results: All participants rated event videos as more hazardous than non-event videos, but there was no main effect of group. Rather, there was a significant EventbyGroup interaction in which there were no group differences in hazard ratings for non-event videos, but experienced drivers rated event videos as more hazardous than novice drivers. Specific characteristics of the event videos, such as the hazard development period, were related to differences between novice and experienced drivers’ hazardousness ratings. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first use of naturalistic driving videos from an existing database as experimental stimuli. We found that the task discriminated between novice and experienced drivers’ ratings of hazardousness. This distinction suggests naturalistic driving videos may be viable stimuli for experimental studies. Practical Applications: The application of naturalistic driving video database for experimental research may hold promise.
•A method for discovering defects in online reviews of baby cribs is proposed.•The efficacy of a smoke word method and sentiment analysis methods are compared.•The smoke word method that is proposed ...for online reviews is found to strongly predict the existence of safety defects.•Domain specific smoke words produce better results than domain independent smoke words.
Defects in baby cribs and related products can cause injuries and deaths, and they cost manufacturers and distributors millions of dollars in fines and legal fees and even more in losses of sales and brand image. There has been no prior research regarding automated defect discovery from online reviews of baby cribs, and prior safety defect discovery methods designed and calibrated for other industries must be adapted. We aim to determine which words and phrases are indicators of defects in online reviews and whether sentiment analysis is sufficient for automated defect discovery in the baby crib industry. We find that sentiment analysis serves as a useful tool for automated defect discovery in the baby crib industry and create a supplementary set of “smoke terms” that are strong indicators of safety defects in online reviews of baby cribs. Using our term-based scoring method, we observe a 59% improvement in precision and a 60% improvement in recall when compared to the top-performing prior sentiment method. Our findings provide actionable insights into how analysis of online reviews and other social media can improve baby crib quality management techniques. These terms can be used with immediate effect to monitor and more rapidly identify defects and rectify them before injuries or deaths occur.
One mechanism for teenagers' elevated crash risk during independent driving may be inadequate learner driving experience.
To determine how learner driver experience was associated with crash risk ...during the first year of independent driving.
Youth aged 15.5 to 16.1 years at recruitment were eligible to participate. Participants' vehicles were instrumented with sensors, and driving was recorded during the learner period through 1 year of independent driving. Data were collected from January 2011 through August 2014 in southwestern Virginia.
The amount, consistency and variety of practice, driving errors, and kinematic risky driving (KRD) rates during the learner period were recorded. Surveys, including one on sensation-seeking personality traits, were assessed at baseline.
Cox proportional hazard regressions examined associations between individual characteristics and learner driving experience with driving time to first crash and all crashes in the first year of independent driving. So that hazard ratios (HRs) can be directly comparable, units of measurement were standardized to the interquartile range.
Of 298 individuals who responded to recruitment, 90 fulfilled the criteria and 82 completed the study (of whom 75 were white 91% and 44 were girls 54%). Teenage participants drove a mean (SD) of 1259.2 (939.7) miles over 89 days during the learner period. There were 49 property-damage crashes and/or police-reportable crashes during independent driving. Factors associated with driving time to first crash included higher sensation-seeking personality scale scores (HR, 1.67 95% CI, 1.08-2.57 per 0.75-unit increase), learner driving KRD rates (HR, 1.27 95% CI, 1.12-1.43 per 9.24-unit increase), and learner driving errors (HR, 0.44 95% CI, 0.22-0.86 per increase of 6.48 errors). Similar results were obtained for all crashes in the first year, with the addition of consistency of learner driving practice (HR, 0.61 95% CI, 0.38-0.99 per 0.23-unit increase).
Individual characteristics and learner driving experiences were associated with crash risk during independent driving. As expected, there was an association between sensation seeking and crashes. Elevated KRD rates during the learner period may reflect risky driving behavior among novices or tolerance to abrupt maneuvers by parents who supervise driving. Consistent practice throughout the learner period could reduce teenage crash risk, which is supported by learning theories indicating distributed practice is effective for developing expertise. Errors during practice may constitute learning events that reinforce safer driving. Physicians could encourage parents to provide opportunities for regular practice driving and monitor their teenager's KRD rates during the learner period using in-vehicle or smartphone-based technology.
•We compared drug test data for Maryland crash deaths between FARS and the Medical Examiner.•Medical examiner data indicated a higher incidence of depressants, narcotics, and stimulants.•Medical ...examiner data are a potentially valuable source of drug test information for crash deaths.
Accurate and reliable information on drug use by road users is essential to inform safety policy development but the reliability of national data has been questioned. There are two primary repositories of drug test information from fatal motor vehicle crashes in Maryland: (1) the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which is a national crash database managed by the US Department of Transportation, and (2) the Maryland Medical Examiner (ME). In this study, we compared drug test information for people killed in crashes in Maryland between the FARS system and ME from 2006 – 2018. As ME records are the primary source for the FARS data from Maryland, these two data sets should be closely correlated. We used probabilistic linkage to match FARS and ME cases and compared matched cases by individual drug group. Matching was achieved on 83 % of cases (N = 4803 matched pairs). ME data consistently indicated higher overall incidence and trends in the presence of depressants, narcotics, and stimulants in crash deaths. Sensitivity analysis using both strict and relaxed matching criteria did not change this result. Road safety policy and prevention efforts for crashes involving drugs and alcohol require an accurate understanding of both long-term trends and year-to-year changes in drug prevalence. These findings demonstrate the potential value of using ME data as source of drug test information for crash deaths in the United States.
•Practice driving amount and variety differed widely among participants in a naturalistic driving study.•Having driven before receiving a learner permit was associated with more driving overall, and ...driving in wet weather.•Factors related to parent-teen relationship (such as trust) were associated with more days of practice.•Higher household income was associated with less practice driving.
Despite the fact that a minimum number of practice hours for novice drivers has been widely adopted in the U.S., Australia, NZ and in some European countries, surprisingly little is known about the amount or variety of driving during the learner stage. One factor may be due to the difficulty in obtaining objective measures of the amount and conditions during which practice driving takes place. The purpose of this study was to use objective measures of the amount and variety of practice driving occurring during the learner permit stage, and examine how these differ according to individual and household level characteristics, which were measured at baseline using parent and teen surveys. We found that increased practice was associated with parenting practices, such as parent trust, as well as household income and pre-permit driving experience. Taken collectively, the findings suggest the amount of practice driving may be a function of the motivation or interest of the teen to drive, combined with the quality of the relationship between parents and teens and the household environment within which these characteristics are occurring. Surprisingly, in this study, teens from households with lower incomes gained more practice hours and days. Population level studies examining the association between the family context and how teenagers learn to drive are needed to confirm the findings from this study in a representative sample. The use of both naturalistic and survey methods used in this study demonstrates how they can build on one another.
Older adults are among the fastest-growing demographic groups in the United States, increasing by over a third this past decade. Consequently, the older adult consumer product market has quickly ...become a multi-billion-dollar industry in which millions of products are sold every year. However, the rapidly growing market raises the potential for an increasing number of product safety concerns and consumer product-related injuries among older adults. Recent manufacturer and consumer injury prevention efforts have begun to turn towards online reviews, as these provide valuable information from which actionable, timely intelligence can be derived and used to detect safety concerns and prevent injury. The presented dataset contains 1966 curated online product reviews from consumers, equally distributed between safety concerns and non-concerns, pertaining to product categories typically intended for older adults. Identified safety concerns were manually sub-coded across thirteen dimensions designed to capture relevant aspects of the consumer's experience with the purchased product, facilitate the safety concern identification and sub-classification process, and serve as a gold-standard, balanced dataset for text classifier learning.
•We compared a paper logbook with an app for tracking driving during the learner stage.•Except for the first month, there were no differences in self-reported driving behavior.•User satisfaction with ...the app was high. Most said that they would recommend it to a friend.•Electronic app‒based logbooks are a viable approach for measuring practice driving.
Supervised practice during the learner stage of graduated driver licensing is required in all U.S. states and some international jurisdictions. Several U.S. states require driving hours to be recorded in a paper logbook, making it susceptible to errors or falsification. A smartphone app that operates as an electronic logbook could serve as an alternative. The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of the logbook format (i.e., paper versus electronic) on self-reported driving behavior.
Parent‒teen dyads were enrolled and assigned to electronic (n=147) and paper (n=131) logbook groups using a block design.
This study was conducted in Maryland. Data were collected for 6 continuous months while teenagers held a learner permit between January 2020 and December 2021.
Electronic logbook to measure practice driving.
Self-reported driving between the electronic and paper logbook groups. For those using electronic logbooks, an agreement between self-reported trips and electronic logbook trips and perceptions of using an electronic logbook to measure driving.
There were no statistically significant differences in any measures of self-reported practice driving by logbook type (electronic versus paper). Agreement between self-reported and electronic logbook‒recorded trips ranged between 68.6% and 79.0% (allowing a difference of 2 trips per week). User satisfaction with the electronic logbook was high, with 93.0% of teenagers and 91.9% of parents stating that they would recommend the app to a friend.
An electronic logbook is a viable approach to measuring practice driving. Eventually, it could become part of a system where practice requirements are verified, allowing states to move toward performance-based graduated driver licensing.
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